certificates

name	certificates
description	Maintains the ansible/roles/certificates Ansible role that manages the system CA trust store (anchors, blocklist, extended-format files) via update-ca-trust, as part of the Linux SOE. Use when checking or fixing trusted/blocked CA certificates.

certificates

Maintains ansible/roles/certificates/. See docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for the shared conventions (role layout, audit vs. remediate via --check --diff, safety rules, branch + PR contribution workflow).

ansible/roles/certificates/README.md documents this role's full configuration surface (every defaults/main.yml variable, with its original inline comments, rendered as a single reference). Read it before proposing or explaining how to configure this role — it reflects the role's actual current defaults even if a variable summary elsewhere in this file has drifted out of sync with the role.

What the role actually does

Encoded in ansible/roles/certificates/defaults/main.yml:

• Copies certificates_files_anchors into /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/, certificates_files_blocklist into .../blocklist/ (or .../blacklist/ on RHEL < 9), and certificates_files_ext_format into .../source/. All three lists default empty.
• certificates_files_known (default: the Satellite/Katello CA path) lists extra files that are protected from removal even when certificates_exclusive is set.
• Runs update-ca-trust extract only when a copy task actually changed something (or after an exclusive-mode removal).

This role is sourced from the myllynen/rhel-ansible-roles import (see git log -- ansible/roles/certificates) rather than hand-authored for this repo. Unlike the original reference domains (e.g. timesync, usbguard_setup), it applies state declaratively via standard Ansible modules and does not add its own assert-based drift checks on top — an audit here is exactly what --check --diff reports from the underlying modules, nothing more.

What to do

Audit (read-only, safe to run any time):

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags certificates --check --diff

Summarize the diff output and any failed tasks in plain language.

Remediate (modifies the system — only after the user explicitly asks): first summarize what will change from the --check --diff output, then run the same command without --check:

ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags certificates

Propose a change to the role itself: never edit and commit directly. On a branch named soe/certificates/<short-desc>, edit ansible/roles/certificates/, validate locally (--syntax-check, ansible-lint roles/certificates/, and --check --diff against a real/test host if available), then push and open a PR titled [certificates] <what changed> with the --check --diff output in the body. Then stop — a human reviews and merges; see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md's "Contribution workflow".

Notes

• certificates_exclusive: true removes any anchor/blocklist/source file not in the role's own copied set or in certificates_files_known (via the files_remove role) — review the resulting file list carefully before enabling this on a host with certs installed by other means.

Wiring into the SOE

This role is in configure_rhel_domains's default value in ansible/configure_rhel.yml (see .claude/skills/configure_rhel/SKILL.md) and has a row in .claude/skills/soe/SKILL.md's domain table, so it runs as part of both ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml --tags certificates ... and a full, untagged ansible-playbook ansible/configure_rhel.yml run. This repo no longer uses ansible/site.yml as the baseline entrypoint — see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md.