Add ability to rename host inventory variables using patterns

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Related Issue

None.

New Behavior

Certain environments may have conflicts with the variables given by Netbox, and the variables used in the existing Ansible codebase.

With this change, such cases can be worked around by renaming individual variables, or whole groups of them.

For example, this will rename all cluster* variables to have a netbox__ prefix instead (e.g., cluster_group -> netbox__cluster_group):

rename_variables:
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

Uses a list, instaed of a dict, to ensure that the order of evaluation is strictly defined across all Python versions, and to add the ability to exclude certain variables from being rewritten. For example:

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'

  # Rename all other cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

Contrast to Current Behavior

Currently, variables are hard-coded and there's no way to resolve conflicts with what Netbox wants to set, and the code base that wants to pull inventory variables.
...

Discussion: Benefits and Drawbacks

This change is backward compatible and useful for people that need to integrate existing systems together, where it may not be feasible to give a generic variable like cluster a new meaning.

Proposed Release Note Entry

Add ability to rename host inventory variables using patterns.
...

Double Check

• I have read the comments and followed the CONTRIBUTING.md.
• I have explained my PR according to the information in the comments or in a linked issue.
• My PR targets the devel branch.

[k-304]

Tests:

1

rename_variables:
  # Rename all cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

LGTM.

2

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'

  # Rename all other cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

LGTM.

3

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  - pattern: 'cluster_device'
    repl: 'cluster_device'

  # Rename all other cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

LGTM.

4

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  - pattern: 'cluster_device'
    repl: 'cluster_device'

  # Rename all other cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

LGTM.

5

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  - pattern: 'cluster'
    repl: ''

  # Rename all other cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

🛑 Variable cluster is deleted. Bug or feature?
The other ones are renamed/prefixed as they should.

6

rename_variables:
  # Prefix all variables
  - pattern: '(^.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__\1'

LGTM.

7

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  # Keep cloudscale_inventory the same
  - pattern: 'cloudscale_inventory'
    repl: 'cloudscale_inventory'

  # Prefix all other * variables
  - pattern: '(^.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__\1'

LGTM.

8

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  # Keep cloudscale_inventory the same
  - pattern: 'cloudscale_inventory'
    repl: 'cloudscale_inventory'

  # Postfix all other * variables
  - pattern: '(^.*)'
    repl: '\1__netbox'

LGTM

9

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  
  # Postfix cloudscale_inventory variable
  - pattern: 'cloudscale_inventory'
    repl: 'cloudscale_inventory_postfix'

  # Prefix & postfix all other * variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1_postfix'

LGTM.

10

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  
  # Rename cluster_type variable
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'netbox__\1'

LGTM (expected not to be renamed).

11

rename_variables:
  # Rename all cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster'

🛑 Overwrites all cluster* variables so only the last one is left and named netbox__cluster.

12

rename_variables:
  - pattern: ''
    repl: ''

LGTM (does not do anything).

13

rename_variables:
  # Rename variable with a specific word in it
  - pattern: '(.*)_context_(.*)'
    repl: '\1_context-added_\2'

LGTM.

14

rename_variables:
  # Keep cluster_type the same
  - pattern: 'cluster_type'
    repl: 'cluster_type'
  - pattern: 'cluster_device'
    repl: 'cluster_device'

  # Rename and prefix variable with a specific word in it
  - pattern: '(.*)_context_(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__\1_context-added_\2'

  # Rename all cluster* variables
  - pattern: 'cluster(.*)'
    repl: 'netbox__cluster\1'

LGTM.

[k-304]

LGTM.
My tests and findings are listed in #4 (comment). Nr. 5 is more of a feature than a bug. Nr. 11 is a known issue, since it would be very tricky to provide an error message in this case, so it's a known issue.