Running with emtpy string as argument to --limit should fail

[maetthew]

Summary

When I run ansible-playbook with an empty string ("") as argument to --limit Ansible interprets that to all hosts. I would expect running --limit "" to fail. It fails if I give no argument or a string that doesn't match anything.

This is potentially dangerous in that for instance running CI/CD jobs with a variable as argument to --limit might cause job to run on all hosts in an inventory if the variable is never populated.

Issue Type

Bug Report

Component Name

core

Ansible Version

$ ansible --version
ansible [core 2.16.6]
  config file = None
  configured module search path = ['/home/redacted/.ansible/plugins/modules', '/usr/share/ansible/plugins/modules']
  ansible python module location = /home/redacted/.local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/ansible
  ansible collection location = /home/redacted/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections
  executable location = /home/redacted/.local/bin/ansible
  python version = 3.11.9 (main, Apr 10 2024, 13:16:36) [GCC 13.2.0] (/usr/bin/python3)
  jinja version = 3.1.2
  libyaml = True

Configuration

# if using a version older than ansible-core 2.12 you should omit the '-t all'
$ ansible-config dump --only-changed -t all
CONFIG_FILE() = None
EDITOR(env: EDITOR) = nvim
PAGER(env: PAGER) = /bin/sh -c "fmt -s -w 144 - | less"

OS / Environment

Debian 12

Steps to Reproduce

Run ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini --limit "" ping.yml

- hosts: all
  become: true
  tasks:
    - name: "Ping"
      ansible.builtin.ping:

Expected Results

I would expect running --limit with an empty string to fail. It fails if I give no argument or a string that doesn't match anything.

Actual Results

Ansible filters nothing, and instead runs against all hosts.

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow the Ansible Code of Conduct

[ansibot]

Files identified in the description:

None

If these files are incorrect, please update the component name section of the description or use the component bot command.

[sivel]

This is intentional behavior, and was codified in #62442

An empty limit is an alias for all.

[bcoca]

closing as per above