Timezone module incorrectly assumes systemd based Debian doesn't need /etc/timezone Changed

[probitcarwyn]

Summary

The community.general.timezone module incorrectly assumes systemd based Debian 12 doesn't need the contents of the /etc/timezone to be altered on Debian 12 (bookworm).

Debian tried to remove the use of /etc/timezone in Debian 12 (bookworm) as noted in: https://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges

Consider the localtime(5) link as the primary source and /etc/timezone as a legacy. During Bookworm release cycle there was an attempt to get rid of /etc/timezone (822733), but it was restored for a while since there is a number of packages still relying on it (1031395).

The Ansible timezone module has distinct code paths for Systemd vs Non-Systemd based systems that basically does:

• Uses timedatectl (seemingly exclusively) for systemd based systems.
• Mangles distro specific files for the non systemd case.

Debian 12 (bookworm) is correctly detected as a systemd based system, but as per the Debian docs linked above, Debian 12 still needs /etc/timezone edited as well.

The code that detects systemd is here:

community.general/plugins/modules/timezone.py

Lines 117 to 121 in e5bc38d

	if rc == 0:
	return super(Timezone, SystemdTimezone).__new__(SystemdTimezone)
	else:
	module.debug('timedatectl command was found but not usable: %s. using other method.' % stderr)
	return super(Timezone, NosystemdTimezone).__new__(NosystemdTimezone)

But then the SystemdTimezone code path only uses timedatectl to update the /etc/localtime symlink, but does not update/etc/timezone`.

community.general/plugins/modules/timezone.py

Lines 290 to 296 in e5bc38d

	def __init__(self, module):
	super(SystemdTimezone, self).__init__(module)
	self.timedatectl = module.get_bin_path('timedatectl', required=True)
	self.status = dict()
	# Validate given timezone
	if 'name' in self.value:
	self._verify_timezone()

... while the code path for NosystemdTimezone does edit /etc/timezone:

community.general/plugins/modules/timezone.py

Lines 363 to 384 in e5bc38d

	def __init__(self, module):
	super(NosystemdTimezone, self).__init__(module)
	# Validate given timezone
	planned_tz = ''
	if 'name' in self.value:
	tzfile = self._verify_timezone()
	planned_tz = self.value['name']['planned']
	# `--remove-destination` is needed if /etc/localtime is a symlink so
	# that it overwrites it instead of following it.
	self.update_timezone = ['%s --remove-destination %s /etc/localtime' % (self.module.get_bin_path('cp', required=True), tzfile)]
	self.update_hwclock = self.module.get_bin_path('hwclock', required=True)
	distribution = get_distribution()
	self.conf_files['name'] = '/etc/timezone'
	self.regexps['name'] = re.compile(r'^([^\s]+)', re.MULTILINE)
	self.tzline_format = '%s\n'
	# Distribution-specific configurations
	if self.module.get_bin_path('dpkg-reconfigure') is not None:
	# Debian/Ubuntu
	if 'name' in self.value:
	self.update_timezone = ['%s -sf %s /etc/localtime' % (self.module.get_bin_path('ln', required=True), tzfile),
	'%s --frontend noninteractive tzdata' % self.module.get_bin_path('dpkg-reconfigure', required=True)]
	self.conf_files['hwclock'] = '/etc/default/rcS'

Issue Type

Bug Report

Component Name

timezone

Ansible Version

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.16.9]
  config file = /home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/foo/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/foo/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.12.4 (main, Jun  7 2024, 00:00:00) [GCC 14.1.1 20240607 (Red Hat 14.1.1-5)] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.4
  libyaml = True

Community.general Version

$ ansible-galaxy collection list community.general
# /usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages/ansible_collections
Collection        Version
----------------- -------
community.general 8.6.3  

Configuration

$ ansible-config dump --only-changed
CONFIG_FILE() = /home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg
DEFAULT_BECOME(/home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg) = True
DEFAULT_HOST_LIST(/home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg) = ['/home/foo/Projects/ansible/inventory/none.yml']
EDITOR(env: EDITOR) = /usr/bin/nano
HOST_KEY_CHECKING(/home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg) = False
INVENTORY_ENABLED(/home/foo/Projects/ansible/ansible.cfg) = ['gcp_compute', 'host_list', 'script', 'auto', 'yaml', 'ini', 'toml']

OS / Environment

Fedora 40

Steps to Reproduce

tasks:
    - name: Set Time Zone
      community.general.timezone:
        name: "Europe/London"

Expected Results

Expected all files that need changing on Debian 12 (bookworm) as per https://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges to be updated with the Europe/London timezone data.

Actual Results

While the /etc/localtime symlink is updated to point at the correct timezone file.

The contents of the /etc/timezone file is not changed.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[ansibullbot]

Files identified in the description:

• plugins/modules/timezone.py

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

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[ansibullbot]

cc @indrajitr @jasperla @tmshn
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