synchronize connects to the wrong target

[someone-somenet-org]

SUMMARY

When using inventory files with fantasy-hostnames and defining ansible_ssh_host the synchronize module wont connect to the correct ansible_ssh_host, but will try to connect to the hostname instead.

We see below that ansible tried to do a rsync <options> /root/host_files/DESTHOST/ ansible@DESTHOST:/var/ansible/host_files/ instead of rsync <options> /root/host_files/DESTHOST/ [email protected]:/var/ansible/host_files/

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

COMPONENT NAME

synchronize

ANSIBLE VERSION

ansible [core 2.14.3]
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/root/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /root/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /usr/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.11.2 (main, Mar 13 2023, 12:18:29) [GCC 12.2.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True

CONFIGURATION

CONFIG_FILE() = None

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Debian 12 stable + fasttrack.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

ansible.inventory

[servers]                                                                                                                                                          
DESTHOST ansible_ssh_host="10.10.0.254"                                                                                                                                 

the relevant task

- name: synchronize host's host_files-dir
  synchronize:
    src: "/root/host_files/{{inventory_hostname}}/"
    dest: "/var/ansible/host_files/"
    delete: yes
    checksum: yes
    recursive: yes
    archive: no

EXPECTED RESULTS

Files getting synchronized.

Not: getting an exception that ansible cannot connect to the host it connected to successfully just before during the previous task.

ACTUAL RESULTS

We see below that ansible tried to do a rsync <options> /root/host_files/DESTHOST/ ansible@DESTHOST:/var/ansible/host_files/ instead of rsync <options> /root/host_files/DESTHOST/ [email protected]:/var/ansible/host_files/

fatal: [DESTHOST]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "cmd": "/usr/bin/rsync --delay-updates -F --compress --delete-after --checksum --recursive --rsh='/usr/bin/ssh -S none -i /root/.ssh/id_ansible -o Port=22 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null' --rsync-path='sudo -u root rsync' --out-format='<<CHANGED>>%i %n%L' /root/host_files/DESTHOST/ ansible@DESTHOST:/var/ansible/host_files/", "msg": "ssh: Could not resolve hostname DESTHOST: Name or service not known\r\nrsync: connection unexpectedly closed (0 bytes received so far) [sender]\nrsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(231) [sender=3.2.7]\n", "rc": 12}