I am having issues with Ansible not executing a PHP dynamic inventory file that I have written. To troubleshoot the issue I have created a test.json inventory file to verify my syntax is correct.

cat test.json
{
  "aruba_cx": {
    "children": {
      "hardware_6000": {
        "hosts": {
          "sw-01.domain.uk": null
        }
      },
      "hardware_6200": {
        "hosts": {
          "sw-02.net.domain.uk": null
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "aruba_aos": {
    "children": {
      "hardware_2930": {
        "hosts": {
          "sw-03.domain.uk": null
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

This is accepted by Ansible.

ansible-inventory -i 'test.json' --list
{
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {}
    },
    "all": {
        "children": [
            "ungrouped",
            "aruba_cx",
            "aruba_aos"
        ]
    },
    "aruba_aos": {
        "children": [
            "hardware_2930"
        ]
    },
    "aruba_cx": {
        "children": [
            "hardware_6000",
            "hardware_6200"
        ]
    },
    "hardware_2930": {
        "hosts": [
            "sw-can-laud1-01.net.canterbury.ac.uk"
        ]
    },
    "hardware_6000": {
        "hosts": [
            "sw-can-laud-lg44-01.net.canterbury.ac.uk"
        ]
    },
    "hardware_6200": {
        "hosts": [
            "sw-can-fish1-01.net.canterbury.ac.uk"
        ]
    }
}

However, when I was the same JSON via a PHP executable script Ansible doesn’t seem to execute the file before parsing it.

cat test.php
#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php

// Require iMC Device List
echo require_once "test.json";

ansible-inventory -i './test.php' --list -vvvv
ansible-inventory [core 2.15.12]
  config file = /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
  configured module search path = ['/home/william/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/william/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/william/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/william/.local/bin/ansible-inventory
  python version = 3.9.2 (default, Feb 28 2021, 17:03:44) [GCC 10.2.1 20210110] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.4
  libyaml = True
Using /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg as config file
setting up inventory plugins
Loading collection ansible.builtin from
[WARNING]:  * Failed to parse /home/william/ansible-networks/t.php with script plugin: failed to parse executable inventory script results from /home/william/ansible-networks/t.php: Extra data: line 25 column 2 (char
449). Extra data: line 25 column 2 (char 449)
  File "/home/william/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ansible/inventory/manager.py", line 293, in parse_source
    plugin.parse(self._inventory, self._loader, source, cache=cache)
  File "/home/william/.local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/ansible/plugins/inventory/script.py", line 150, in parse
    raise AnsibleParserError(to_native(e))
[WARNING]: Unable to parse /home/william/ansible-networks/t.php as an inventory source
[WARNING]: No inventory was parsed, only implicit localhost is available
{
    "_meta": {
        "hostvars": {}
    },
    "all": {
        "children": [
            "ungrouped"
        ]
    }
}

Ansible version: 2.15.12

PHP version: 7.4.33

The shebang on this system is #!/usr/bin/env php and has been tested using ./test.php which executes successfully.

The following permissions are set -rwxrwx--- 1 william it-dept 82 Aug 13 12:03 test.php

I have tested adding the enable_plugins = script into my ansible.cfg

cat /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
[defaults]
forks=50
deprecation_warnings=False
transport = ssh
host_key_checking = False
pipelining = True
[ssh_connection]
ssh_args = -F /etc/ssh_config -o ControlMaster=auto -o ControlPersist=60s
[inventory]
#enable_plugins = script

I’m running out of ideas, any pointers on this one would be smashing.

Thank you for reading.