Cfn-python-lint: ignore_templates is not working from .cfnlintrc file

[KarthickEmis]

*cfn-lint version: 0.21.0

Description of issue.

• ignore_templates is not working from .cfnlintrc file.
  Used .cfnlintrc file to ignore templates , but it is not working . It throws below error

AWS CloudFormation Linter................................................Failed
hookid: cfn-python-lint

usage: cfn-lint [-h] [-t TEMPLATE [TEMPLATE ...]] [-b]
                [--ignore-templates IGNORE_TEMPLATES [IGNORE_TEMPLATES ...]]
                [-d] [-f {quiet,parseable,json}] [-l]
                [-r REGIONS [REGIONS ...]]
                [-a APPEND_RULES [APPEND_RULES ...]]
                [-i IGNORE_CHECKS [IGNORE_CHECKS ...]]
                [-c INCLUDE_CHECKS [INCLUDE_CHECKS ...]] [-e]
                [-x CONFIGURE_RULES [CONFIGURE_RULES ...]] [-o OVERRIDE_SPEC]
                [-v] [-u]
                [TEMPLATE [TEMPLATE ...]]

CloudFormation Linter

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Standard:
  TEMPLATE              The CloudFormation template to be linted
  -t TEMPLATE [TEMPLATE ...], --template TEMPLATE [TEMPLATE ...]
                        The CloudFormation template to be linted
  -b, --ignore-bad-template
                        Ignore failures with Bad template
  --ignore-templates IGNORE_TEMPLATES [IGNORE_TEMPLATES ...]
                        Ignore templates
  -f {quiet,parseable,json}, --format {quiet,parseable,json}
                        Output Format
  -l, --list-rules      list all the rules
  -r REGIONS [REGIONS ...], --regions REGIONS [REGIONS ...]
                        list the regions to validate against.
  -i IGNORE_CHECKS [IGNORE_CHECKS ...], --ignore-checks IGNORE_CHECKS [IGNORE_CHECKS ...]
                        only check rules whose id do not match these values
  -c INCLUDE_CHECKS [INCLUDE_CHECKS ...], --include-checks INCLUDE_CHECKS [INCLUDE_CHECKS ...]
                        include rules whose id match these values
  -e, --include-experimental
                        Include experimental rules
  -x CONFIGURE_RULES [CONFIGURE_RULES ...], --configure-rule CONFIGURE_RULES [CONFIGURE_RULES ...]
                        Provide configuration for a rule. Format
                        RuleId:key=value. Example: E3012:strict=false
  -v, --version         Version of cfn-lint

Advanced / Debugging:
  -d, --debug           Enable debug logging
  -a APPEND_RULES [APPEND_RULES ...], --append-rules APPEND_RULES [APPEND_RULES ...]
                        specify one or more rules directories using one or
                        more --append-rules arguments.
  -o OVERRIDE_SPEC, --override-spec OVERRIDE_SPEC
                        A CloudFormation Spec override file that allows
                        customization
  -u, --update-specs    Update the CloudFormation Specs

[cmmeyer]

Can you share your .cfnlintrc? Here is ours, which works:

templates:
  - templates/**/*.yaml
  - templates/*.yaml
append_rules:
  - append_rules
ignore_templates:
  - templates/app/env/*/app_env.yaml
  - templates/app/env/*/rpc_env.yaml

[karthickcse05]

Below is the .cfnlintrc file from my repo

templates:
  - Solutions/SNSFlow/*Flow.yaml
append_rules:
  - append_rules
ignore_templates:
  - Solutions/SNSFlow/buildspec.yaml
  - Solutions/SNSFlow/test.yaml
  - Solutions/SNSFlow/parameters-test.json
  - Solutions/SNSFlow/pipeline/test-parameters.json
 ```

Below is the .pre-commit-config.yaml file from my repo

.pre-commit-config.yaml

repos:

• repo: https://github.com/awslabs/cfn-python-lint
  rev: v0.16.0 # The version of cfn-lint to use
  hooks:
  
  
  
  • id: cfn-python-lint
    
    files: Solutions/.*.(json|yml|yaml)$
    
    args: [--append-rules=./cfnrules/, --override-spec=./spec.json]
    
    ```
    
    Below is the link of my repo for your reference
    
    https://github.com/karthickcse05/cfnlint-testing.git
  
  

Note:

• I added Solutions/SNSFlow/buildspec.yaml in ignore_templates section , it is working as expected .
  But when i add the below lines
• Solutions/SNSFlow/parameters-test.json
  
  
  
  • Solutions/SNSFlow/pipeline/test-parameters.json , it is not working and throwing the above error with no details.
  
  
• If i remove the above two lines , lint is executing(considering) the json file also.

[kddejong]

@chuckmeyer thoughts on this?

I think the issue here is that pre-commit must exist cfn-lint with each filename that has changed that meets the pattern. However, if .cfnlintrc says to ignore Solutions/SNSFlow/parameters-test.json it gets filtered out from the and basically makes the file list empty. I believe that is why we throw a usage error. I'm not sure what the correct type of failure (or success) is here.

@KarthickEmis I wonder if in the short term you should add the exclude patterns to the pre commit hook so that it gets filtered out before .cfnlintrc is even used.

[kddejong]

I have a thought here. I think we should change. .pre-commit-hooks.yaml to have pass_filenames: false

Then we update the .pre-commit-config.yaml to be

repos:
-   repo: https://github.com/aws-cloudformation/cfn-python-lint
    rev: v0.42.0
    hooks:
    -   id: cfn-python-lint
        args:
        - --config-file
        - .cfnlintrc

or

repos:
-   repo: https://github.com/aws-cloudformation/cfn-python-lint
    rev: v0.42.0
    hooks:
    -   id: cfn-python-lint
        args:
        - --templates
        - **.*yaml

@PatMyron