locale_gen doesn't work on Gentoo targets if a specified locale doesn't exist in /etc/locale.gen

[myrdd]

Summary

The module locale_gen fails with the following message:
The locale you've entered is not available on your system.

This issue has been discussed here: ansible/ansible#38931
There was a PR here: ansible/ansible#34146

Citing @s-hamann:

Not having all available locales in /etc/locale.gen is normal on Gentoo. On a fresh install, it contains 14 commented examples and the administrator is expected to add or uncomment their desired locales.
Gentoo has /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED.

locale_gen is looking inside /etc/locale.gen for valid locales, but for Gentoo it should look inside /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED.

Issue Type

Bug Report

Component Name

locale_gen

Ansible Version

I don't use the most recent version of Ansible, but I've read the most recent locale_gen code and there's no case for Gentoo.

$ ./.venv/bin/ansible --version
ansible 2.9.7
  config file = /home/myself/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/myself/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/myself/ansible/.venv/lib/python3.7/site-packages/ansible
  executable location = ./.venv/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.7.3 (default, Jan 22 2021, 20:04:44) [GCC 8.3.0]

Configuration

$ ./.venv/bin/ansible-config dump --only-changed
DEFAULT_HOST_LIST(/home/myself/ansible/ansible.cfg) = ['/home/myself/ansible/hosts.yml']
DEFAULT_STDOUT_CALLBACK(/home/myself/ansible/ansible.cfg) = debug
INTERPRETER_PYTHON(/home/myself/ansible/ansible.cfg) = auto
INVENTORY_ENABLED(/home/myself/ansible/ansible.cfg) = ['host_list', 'yaml']

OS / Environment

target OS: Gentoo

/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED on Gentoo

/etc/locale.gen on Gentoo:

# /etc/locale.gen: list all of the locales you want to have on your system.
# See the locale.gen(5) man page for more details.
#
# The format of each line:
# <locale name> <charset>
#
# Where <locale name> starts with a name as found in /usr/share/i18n/locales/.
# It must be unique in the file as it is used as the key to locale variables.
# For non-default encodings, the <charset> is typically appended.
#
# Where <charset> is a charset located in /usr/share/i18n/charmaps/ (sans any
# suffix like ".gz").
#
# All blank lines and lines starting with # are ignored.
#
# For the default list of supported combinations, see the file:
# /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED
#
# Whenever glibc is emerged, the locales listed here will be automatically
# rebuilt for you.  After updating this file, you can simply run `locale-gen`
# yourself instead of re-emerging glibc.

#en_US ISO-8859-1
#en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8
#ja_JP.EUC-JP EUC-JP
#ja_JP.UTF-8 UTF-8
#ja_JP EUC-JP
#en_HK ISO-8859-1
#en_PH ISO-8859-1
#de_DE ISO-8859-1
#de_DE@euro ISO-8859-15
#es_MX ISO-8859-1
#fa_IR UTF-8
#fr_FR ISO-8859-1
#fr_FR@euro ISO-8859-15
#it_IT ISO-8859-1

Steps to Reproduce

- name: generate locales
  locale_gen:
    name: '{{ item }}'
    state: present
  loop:
    - de_DE.UTF-8
    - en_US.UTF-8

Expected Results

de_DE.UTF-8 should be added to /etc/locale.gen if it exists in /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED.

Actual Results

PLAY [all] ****************************************************************************************************

TASK [Gathering Facts] ****************************************************************************************
ok: [gentoo.mynet.localhost]

TASK [common : generate locales] ******************************************************************************
failed: [gentoo.mynet.localhost] (item=de_DE.UTF-8) => {
    "ansible_loop_var": "item",
    "changed": false,
    "item": "de_DE.UTF-8"
}

MSG:

The locale you've entered is not available on your system.
ok: [gentoo.mynet.localhost] => (item=en_US.UTF-8)

PLAY RECAP ****************************************************************************************************
gentoo.mynet.localhost : ok=1    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=1    skipped=0    rescued=0    ignored=0

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/modules/system/locale_gen.py

If these files are inaccurate, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[ansibullbot]

cc @AugustusKling
click here for bot help

[aminvakil]

As it's been stated in the PR you have mentioned and these lines:

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

Lines 63 to 73 in 276880a

	def is_available(name, ubuntuMode):
	"""Check if the given locale is available on the system. This is done by
	checking either :
	* if the locale is present in /etc/locales.gen
	* or if the locale is present in /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED"""
	if ubuntuMode:
	__regexp = r'^(?P<locale>\S+_\S+) (?P<charset>\S+)\s*$'
	__locales_available = '/usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED'
	else:
	__regexp = r'^#{0,1}\s*(?P<locale>\S+_\S+) (?P<charset>\S+)\s*$'
	__locales_available = '/etc/locale.gen'

It's checking /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED in some circumstances, but I'm not sure if just changing it to also check /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED is fine or not as I don't have this file on my system (Arch Linux).

[felixfontein]

Maybe the best behavior would be to first check /etc/locale.gen (if not in "Ubuntu mode"), and if it is not found there and /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED also exists, also check that one. I don't have /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED on my Arch boxes, but it exists on some Debian boxes I checked.

[aminvakil]

FYI it's also not available on CentOS 7, 8.

[myrdd]

FYI: on Debian, /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED is part of the locales package, which also contains the locale-gen binary:
https://packages.debian.org/buster/locales
https://packages.debian.org/buster/all/locales/filelist

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/modules/locale_gen.py

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the !component bot command.

click here for bot help

[martin-braun]

Originates from ansible/ansible-modules-extras#425 and is still an issue on a fresh Debian bookworm.

Deleting the locale.gen doesn't work and isn't recommend.

I stumbled over this, because a lot of African locales are missing. You have to pick the origin locale of the country that occupied their land in the past. I.e. fr_FR instead of fr_CF, etc.

[felixfontein]

Arch has /usr/share/i18n/SUPPORTED nowadays as well (reacting to my comment from 2021).