Unable to Create Temporary Directory During Molecule Test Execution in Ansible Role

[SOHAN-cyber]

Prerequisites

• This was not already reported in the past (duplicate check)
• It does reproduce it with code from main branch (latest unreleased version)
• I include a minimal example for reproducing the bug
• The bug is not trivial, as for those a direct pull-request is preferred
• Running pip check does not report any conflicts
• I was able to reproduce the issue on a different machine
• The issue is not specific to any driver other than 'default' one

Environment

molecule version

root@sohan:/home/aerohub/Documents/compegon/configuration-management/roles/cgi.example_app# molecule --version
INFO Found config file /home/aerohub/Documents/compegon/configuration-management/.config/molecule/config.yml
molecule 24.2.0 using python 3.10
ansible:2.16.2
azure:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins
containers:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins requiring collections: ansible.posix>=1.3.0 community.docker>=1.9.1 containers.podman>=1.8.1
default:24.2.0 from molecule
docker:2.1.0 from molecule_docker requiring collections: community.docker>=3.0.2 ansible.posix>=1.4.0
ec2:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins
gce:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins requiring collections: google.cloud>=1.0.2 community.crypto>=1.8.0
openstack:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins requiring collections: openstack.cloud>=2.1.0
podman:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins requiring collections: containers.podman>=1.7.0 ansible.posix>=1.3.0
vagrant:23.5.3 from molecule_plugins

ansible --version 

root@sohan:/home/aerohub/Documents/compegon/configuration-management/roles/cgi.example_app# ansible --version
ansible [core 2.16.2]
config file = None
configured module search path = ['/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
ansible python module location = /root/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansible
ansible collection location = /root/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
executable location = /usr/local/bin/ansible
python version = 3.10.12 (main, Nov 20 2023, 15:14:05) [GCC 11.4.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
jinja version = 3.0.3
libyaml = True

 cat /etc/os-release 

PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

What happened

While running the Molecule test cases for an Ansible role, users encounter an issue where Ansible fails to create a temporary directory. This issue hinders the completion of the test execution process. Despite attempts to resolve the problem by specifying a remote_tmp path, the problem persists.

Error:

fatal: [instance-docker]: UNREACHABLE! => changed=false 
  msg: 'Failed to create temporary directory. In some cases, you may have been able to authenticate and did not have permissions on the target directory. Consider changing the remote tmp path in ansible.cfg to a path rooted in "/tmp", for more error information use -vvv. Failed command was: ( umask 77 && mkdir -p "` echo ~/.ansible/tmp `"&& mkdir "` echo ~/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1713772767.4687226-114022-277068314687868 `" && echo ansible-tmp-1713772767.4687226-114022-277068314687868="` echo ~/.ansible/tmp/ansible-tmp-1713772767.4687226-114022-277068314687868 `" ), exited with result 1'
  unreachable: true

It is working fine when host is set to localhost.

Reproducing example

converge.yml

---

• name: Converge
  hosts: all
  gather_facts: false

  pre_tasks:

  • name: Update apt cache if needed
    ansible.builtin.apt:
    update_cache: true
    cache_valid_time: 3600

  • name: Install required application apt packages
    ansible.builtin.apt:
    name: "{{ item }}"
    state: present
    with_items:

    • python3
    • python3-pip
    • virtualenv

  roles:

  • role: test.example_app

molecule.yml

---

driver:
name: docker
platforms:

• name: instance-docker
  image: ubuntu:22.04
  command: ${MOLECULE_DOCKER_COMMAND:-""}
  pre_build_image: true # Use specified image as-is

main.yml

---

• name: Create application directory
  ansible.builtin.file:
  path: "{{ example_app.dest_dir }}"
  state: directory
  mode: "0755"
  owner: "{{ example_app.user }}"
  group: "{{ example_app.group }}"

• name: Clone application repo
  ansible.builtin.git:
  repo: "{{ example_app.app_repo }}"
  dest: "{{ example_app.dest_dir }}"
  accept_hostkey: true
  version: develop

• name: Install dependencies
  ansible.builtin.pip:
  requirements: "{{ example_app.dest_dir }}/requirements.txt"
  virtualenv_python: python3
  virtualenv: "{{ example_app.dest_dir }}"

• name: Install systemd service unit
  ansible.builtin.template:
  src: example_app.service.j2
  dest: /etc/systemd/system/example_app.service
  mode: "0644"
  become: true
  notify:

  • reload_systemd_daemon
  • restart_service

[mafalb]

It's a image running systemd?
See https://ansible.readthedocs.io/projects/molecule/guides/systemd-container/

or use systemd: always, that should also work IMO.
The reason for the error is IMO that you do not mount /tmp as tmpfs

name: instance-docker
image: ubuntu:22.04
command: ${MOLECULE_DOCKER_COMMAND:-""}
pre_build_image: true # Use specified image as-is
systemd: always

[mafalb]

or use systemd: always, that should also work IMO.

I realise that you use docker, not podman. Maybe the systemd: always shortcut does only exist with podman.