macOS Testing Limitation and Solution

Current Status

The Molecule tests as configured for CI (using base Debian/Ubuntu images with systemd) do not work out-of-the-box on macOS due to the following issues:

Base images lack systemd: debian:bookworm and ubuntu:noble don't include systemd
Base images lack sudo: Required for Ansible become operations
systemd in containers: Requires special Docker configuration that base images don't have

Why This Works in CI but Not Locally

GitHub Actions CI: Uses systemd-enabled container images or builds custom images with systemd
macOS Docker Desktop: Base images don't have systemd pre-configured

Solutions for macOS Testing

Option 1: Use Pre-built systemd Images (Recommended)

Use Docker images that already have systemd enabled:

# Install in virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install molecule 'molecule-plugins[docker]' ansible-core

# Use geerlingguy's systemd-enabled images
MOLECULE_DISTRO=debian12 \
MOLECULE_IMAGE=geerlingguy/docker-debian12-ansible:latest \
molecule test

# Or Ubuntu
MOLECULE_DISTRO=ubuntu2404 \
MOLECULE_IMAGE=geerlingguy/docker-ubuntu2404-ansible:latest \
molecule test

Option 2: Build Custom Systemd Images

Create a custom Dockerfile that adds systemd:

# Dockerfile.debian
FROM debian:bookworm
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y systemd sudo python3 && \
    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
CMD ["/lib/systemd/systemd"]

Then build and use:

docker build -t debian-systemd:bookworm -f Dockerfile.debian .
MOLECULE_DISTRO=debian12 \
MOLECULE_IMAGE=debian-systemd:bookworm \
molecule test

Option 3: Simplified Testing Without systemd

For quick validation without full systemd:

Test only configuration generation (not service management)
Use molecule converge instead of molecule test
Manually verify /etc/ssh/sshd_config is generated correctly

# Run role application only
molecule converge

# Verify configuration
molecule verify

# Cleanup
molecule destroy

Recommendation

For local macOS development: Use Option 1 with pre-built images from geerlingguy or similar.

For CI: Continue using base images with systemd configuration (already working).

Updating CI for macOS Compatibility

To make CI tests also work locally on macOS, we would need to:

Add logic to detect local vs CI environment
Use different images based on environment
Or build custom systemd images in CI

This adds complexity, so the current approach (optimized for CI) is acceptable with documented workarounds for local testing.

Testing Impact

✅ CI Tests: Fully working with systemd verification
⚠️ macOS Local Tests: Require pre-built systemd images or simplified testing
✅ Role Functionality: Not affected - role works correctly when deployed

Last updated: 2025-10-05

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