ansible-lint documentation recommends to install custom rules as packages.

However, several online tutorials suggest to use the -r CLI flag to specify a directory for ansible-lint to pick up user-defined custom rules.

First (suggestion), when using -r ./custom-rules/, I think it would be very handy to have a warning produced informing the user that embedded rules are disabled.

Second (actual bug), there is also a -R flag, documented like this in 25.8.2 in the --help output:

  -r RULESDIR, --rules-dir RULESDIR
                        Specify custom rule directories. Add -R to keep using embedded rules from /home/lucas_cimon/.local/share/virtualenvs/chezsoi/lib/python3.10/site-packages/ansiblelint/rules
  -R                    Keep default rules when using -r

However, based on some basic test with the embedded risky-file-permissions rule, even when using -R the embedded rules are disabled.

Issue Type

• Bug Report

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Ubuntu 22.04

ansible-lint --version
ansible-lint 25.8.2 using ansible-core:2.17.13 ansible-compat:25.8.1 ruamel-yaml:0.18.14 ruamel-yaml-clib:0.2.12

• ansible installation method: pip
• ansible-lint installation method: pip

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

mkdir /tmp/bugrepro
cd /tmp/bugrepro
mkdir -p roles/bugrepro/tasks
cat <<EOF >roles/bugrepro/tasks/main.yaml
- name: Create /tmp/dummy
  ansible.builtin.file:
    path: /tmp/dummy
    state: directory
> EOF
ansible-lint  # correctly reports an issue with the risky-file-permissions rule

mkdir custom-rules
ansible-lint -R custom-rules  # does not report any issue

Desired Behavior

1. when using -R, embedded rules should not be disabled (actual bug)
2. when using -r, a warning should be produced to recommend to switch to -R (suggestion)

Actual Behavior

When using -R, embedded rules are disabled.