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Add export options to omit inventory hosts and groups - #16606

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shaisabm:feature/export-exclude-inventory-children
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shaisabm:feature/export-exclude-inventory-children

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@shaisabm

@shaisabm shaisabm commented Aug 19, 2026

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SUMMARY

related #16175

Exporting an inventory also exports every host and group it contains. For a
dynamic inventory those objects are recreated the next time the inventory
source syncs, so carrying them through an export and a later import costs
time without adding information. On large inventories that dominates the
run.

This adds two opt-in options to the export module:

  • exclude_inventory_children — a list of inventory names or IDs whose
    hosts and groups are left out
  • exclude_dynamic_inventory_children — a bool that applies to every
    inventory reporting has_inventory_sources

Both default to off, so an export that does not ask for them is byte-for-byte
unchanged.

Inventory sources are a separate asset type in EXPORTABLE_RESOURCES, not a
related object of an inventory, so they are exported only when selected.
Select them alongside the exclusion if the omitted hosts and groups are meant
to be recreated by a source sync after an import — otherwise the export
carries neither the children nor the sources that would rebuild them. The
option descriptions say so, and the examples below select both.

Known limitation, documented on both options: hosts and groups added by hand
to an excluded inventory are dropped too, and no inventory source will
restore them.

ISSUE TYPE
  • New or Enhanced Feature
COMPONENT NAME
  • Collection
  • CLI
STEPS TO REPRODUCE AND EXTRA INFO
- name: Export all inventories without the children of the dynamic ones
  export:
    inventory: 'all'
    # the sources are what recreate the omitted hosts and groups on the next sync
    inventory_sources: 'all'
    exclude_dynamic_inventory_children: true

- name: Export everything, skipping the children of two named inventories
  export:
    all: true
    exclude_inventory_children:
      - 'My Cloud Inventory'
      - 'My Other Cloud Inventory'

The second example needs no explicit source selection, since all already
covers every asset type.

Equivalent on the CLI:

awx export --inventory --inventory_sources --exclude-dynamic-inventory-children

Test results:

$ make test_collection COLLECTION_TEST_DIRS=awx_collection/test/awx/test_export.py
test_export PASSED
test_export_simple PASSED
test_export_system_auditor PASSED
test_export_inventory_children_by_default PASSED
test_export_exclude_inventory_children_by_name PASSED
test_export_exclude_inventory_children_by_id PASSED
test_export_exclude_dynamic_inventory_children PASSED
test_export_inventory_source_still_exported_when_children_excluded PASSED
============================== 8 passed in 18.98s ==============================

$ py.test awx_collection/test/awx
206 passed in 45.74s

$ cd awxkit && tox -e test
286 passed in 17.20s

Integration tests have not been run against a live instance.

Summary by CodeRabbit

  • New Features
    • Added options to exclude hosts and groups from selected inventories during exports.
    • Added an option to exclude children from all inventories that use inventory sources.
    • Exclusions can be specified by inventory name or ID.
    • Inventory sources continue to be exported when their child hosts and groups are excluded.
  • Bug Fixes
    • Export commands now report an error when requested exclusions are unsupported.

Hosts and groups created by an inventory source are rebuilt on the next sync, so exporting them costs time without adding information.

Add exclude_inventory_children (names or IDs) and exclude_dynamic_inventory_children (any inventory with an inventory source) to export_assets. Both default to off. The inventory and its sources are still exported, so an import can recreate the children.

Manually added hosts and groups of an excluded inventory are dropped too, and no source will restore them.

Signed-off-by: Shaisab Mistry <shaisabmistry@gmail.com>
Add --exclude-inventory-children and --exclude-dynamic-inventory-children so awx export matches the collection module. They go in their own argument group, since the resources group is generated from EXPORTABLE_RESOURCES.

Signed-off-by: Shaisab Mistry <shaisabmistry@gmail.com>
@github-actions github-actions Bot added component:awx_collection issues related to the collection for controlling AWX component:cli community labels Aug 19, 2026
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No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between adf7f99 and 30bd178.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)
  • awx_collection/plugins/modules/export.py

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The export module and CLI add options to exclude inventory hosts and groups. The export API applies exclusions by inventory name, ID, or dynamic inventory source status. Unit and integration tests cover inclusion and exclusion behavior.

Changes

Inventory Child Export

Layer / File(s) Summary
Export option contracts and wiring
awx_collection/plugins/modules/export.py, awxkit/awxkit/cli/resource.py
The module and CLI add options for excluding inventory children. The module checks awxkit support and passes requested values to export_assets.
Inventory child filtering
awxkit/awxkit/api/pages/api.py
The export API skips inventory hosts and groups for selected inventories or dynamic inventories with inventory sources.
Export behavior validation
awx_collection/test/awx/test_export.py, awx_collection/tests/integration/targets/export/tasks/main.yml
Unit and integration tests cover default child export, exclusions by name and ID, dynamic-inventory exclusion, static inventory preservation, and inventory-source export.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 30bd1

The export options are opt-in and preserve existing behavior by default; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant ExportCLI
  participant ExportModule
  participant export_assets
  participant Inventory
  ExportCLI->>export_assets: Pass inventory exclusion options
  ExportModule->>export_assets: Pass requested exclusion parameters
  export_assets->>Inventory: Check inventory ID, name, and source status
  Inventory-->>export_assets: Include or skip hosts and groups
  export_assets-->>ExportCLI: Return exported assets
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❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name Status Explanation Resolution
Docstring Coverage ⚠️ Warning Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.
✅ Passed checks (4 passed)
Check name Status Explanation
Linked Issues check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check ✅ Passed Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check ✅ Passed Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check ✅ Passed The title clearly summarizes the main change: adding export options to omit inventory hosts and groups.
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Actionable comments posted: 1

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Inline comments:
In `@awx_collection/plugins/modules/export.py`:
- Around line 94-107: Update the export example to select inventory sources
alongside inventory, ensuring export_assets includes the sources needed to
recreate omitted dynamic children during import. Qualify the recovery
documentation to state that source selection is required for synchronization.
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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 70f42d2 and adf7f99.

📒 Files selected for processing (5)
  • awx_collection/plugins/modules/export.py
  • awx_collection/test/awx/test_export.py
  • awx_collection/tests/integration/targets/export/tasks/main.yml
  • awxkit/awxkit/api/pages/api.py
  • awxkit/awxkit/cli/resource.py

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Comment thread awx_collection/plugins/modules/export.py
related ansible#16175

Expose the awxkit exclusions on the export module so a playbook can skip the hosts and groups of inventories that a source repopulates.

The options are declared directly on argument_spec, not through the EXPORTABLE_RESOURCES loop, and are forwarded only when set so an older awxkit keeps working.

Integration coverage is name-based only: has_inventory_sources is refreshed by a background task, so asserting on it there would race.

Signed-off-by: Shaisab Mistry <shaisabmistry@gmail.com>
@shaisabm
shaisabm force-pushed the feature/export-exclude-inventory-children branch from adf7f99 to 30bd178 Compare August 19, 2026 16:43
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