locale_gen module cannot enable 'C' locale

[vuzdemav]

Summary

When I try to ensure that the "C.UTF-8" locale is enabled, the locale-gen module says that "The locale you've entered is not available on your system." even though it is present in /etc/locale.gen

Issue Type

Bug Report

Component Name

locale_gen

Ansible Version

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.12.3]
  config file = /home/ckerr/repos/ansible-base/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/ckerr/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/ckerr/.venvs/ansible/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/ckerr/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/ckerr/.venvs/ansible/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.10.4 (main, Jun 29 2022, 12:14:53) [GCC 11.2.0]
  jinja version = 3.1.1
  libyaml = True

Community.general Version

$ ansible-galaxy collection list community.general
[DEPRECATION WARNING]: [defaults]callback_whitelist option, normalizing names to new standard, use callbacks_enabled instead. This feature will be removed from ansible-
core in version 2.15. Deprecation warnings can be disabled by setting deprecation_warnings=False in ansible.cfg.

# /home/ckerr/.venvs/ansible/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansible_collections
Collection        Version
----------------- -------
community.general 4.6.0  

# /home/ckerr/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections
Collection        Version
----------------- -------
community.general 2.3.0  

Configuration

- name: "Set up locales"
  community.general.locale_gen:
    name: 'C.UTF-8'
    state: present

OS / Environment

Ubuntu 22.04 (For some reason the target host does not have /var/lib/locales/supported.d as is normal for Ubuntu. However, other locales work so the problem is with C.UTF-8)

Steps to Reproduce

- name: "Set up locales"
  community.general.locale_gen:
    name: 'C.UTF-8'
    state: present

Expected Results

C locale is enabled (or nothing happens if it is already enabled)

Actual Results

failed: [kvm31-dev-ksp-ee] (item=C.UTF-8) => {
    "ansible_loop_var": "item",
    "changed": false,
    "invocation": {
        "module_args": {
            "name": "C.UTF-8",
            "state": "present"
        }
    },
    "item": "C.UTF-8",
    "msg": "The locale you've entered is not available on your system."
}

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[vuzdemav]

I think the problem is in this regexp: r'^(?P<locale>\S+_\S+) (?P<charset>\S+)\s*$'

community.general/plugins/modules/system/locale_gen.py

Line 71 in 8e9ec61

__regexp = r'^(?P<locale>\S+_\S+) (?P<charset>\S+)\s*$'

It assumes that the locale name has an underscore. This is not the case for C.UTF-8 and eo.UTF-8, possibly also for others.

[ansibullbot]

cc @AugustusKling
click here for bot help

[vuzdemav]

Related: #2399

[russoz]

It assumes that the locale name has an underscore. This is not the case for C.UTF-8 and eo.UTF-8, possibly also for others.

Apparently we have eo and eo_US.UTF-8, but no eo.UTF-8 available in Ubuntu 22.04:

vagrant@ubuntu-jammy:~$ grep '^eo' /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
eo UTF-8
eo_US.UTF-8 UTF-8

I am working on this, but locale_gen module removes locales by commenting out the corresponding line in /etc/locale.gen, and I will have to create a special case in the test for C.UTF-8 as it is the fallback locale and even with the line commented out it never ceases to be available. Which begs the question: why would you need to add something that is supposed to be always there?