[BUG] Discrepancy between 'salt' and 'salt-ssh' results with 'slsutil.update' within a Jinja expression-statement

[FreeOni]

Description
The slsutil.update module produces different results when called from a Jinja expression-statement depending on whether salt or salt-ssh is used.

Setup
/srv/salt/bug/init.sls

---
{% set update_map = {'key': 'original'} %}
{% set merge_map = {'key': 'original'} %}
{% set new = {'key': 'new'} %}



notify-before-update:
  test.show_notification:
    - name: 'Original update_map'
    - text: {{ update_map.key }}

{% do salt['slsutil.update'](update_map, new) %}

notify-after-update:
  test.show_notification:
    - name: 'Update result'
    - text: {{ update_map.key }}



notify-before-merge:
  test.show_notification:
    - name: 'Original merge_map'
    - text: {{ merge_map.key }}

{% do salt['slsutil.merge'](merge_map, new) %}

notify-after-merge:
  test.show_notification:
    - name: 'Merge result'
    - text: {{ merge_map.key }}

Please be as specific as possible and give set-up details.

• (Master) on-prem machine
• (Minion) VM (Vagrant with libvirt driver running on Master)
• Both installed with Fedora 38: sudo dnf install salt-master salt-minion

Steps to Reproduce the behavior
Commands
sudo salt-ssh '*' state.sls bug
followed by:
sudo salt '*' state.sls bug

Output
Cleaned up salt-ssh output:

minion:
----------
          ID: notify-before-update
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Original update_map
     Comment: original
----------
          ID: notify-after-update
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Update result
     Comment: original
----------
          ID: notify-before-merge
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Original merge_map
     Comment: original
----------
          ID: notify-after-merge
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Merge result
     Comment: original

Summary for minion
------------
Succeeded: 4
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     4

Cleaned up salt output:

minion:
----------
          ID: notify-before-update
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Original update_map
     Comment: original
----------
          ID: notify-after-update
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Update result
     Comment: new
----------
          ID: notify-before-merge
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Original merge_map
     Comment: original
----------
          ID: notify-after-merge
    Function: test.show_notification
        Name: Merge result
     Comment: original

Summary for minion
------------
Succeeded: 4
Failed:    0
------------
Total states run:     4

Observe
The notify-after-update reveals different values for the update_map dictionary depending on the command used.

In contrast, notify-before-merge and notify-after-merge are the same between commands and are included to demonstrate that slsutil.merge does not have this issue.

Expected behavior
I expect the same configuration to be applied with both the salt and salt-ssh commands.

Versions Report

salt --versions-report

(Provided by running salt --versions-report. Please also mention any differences in master/minion versions.)

Salt Version:
          Salt: 3006.2
 
Python Version:
        Python: 3.11.4 (main, Jun  7 2023, 00:00:00) [GCC 13.1.1 20230511 (Red Hat 13.1.1-2)]
 
Dependency Versions:
          cffi: 1.15.1
      cherrypy: Not Installed
      dateutil: 2.8.2
     docker-py: 5.0.3
         gitdb: Not Installed
     gitpython: Not Installed
        Jinja2: 3.0.3
       libgit2: Not Installed
  looseversion: 1.3.0
      M2Crypto: Not Installed
          Mako: Not Installed
       msgpack: 1.0.4
  msgpack-pure: Not Installed
  mysql-python: Not Installed
     packaging: 23.0
     pycparser: 2.20
      pycrypto: Not Installed
  pycryptodome: 3.17.0
        pygit2: Not Installed
  python-gnupg: Not Installed
        PyYAML: 6.0
         PyZMQ: 24.0.1
        relenv: Not Installed
         smmap: Not Installed
       timelib: Not Installed
       Tornado: 4.5.3
           ZMQ: 4.3.4
 
System Versions:
          dist: fedora 38 
        locale: utf-8
       machine: x86_64
       release: 6.4.11-200.fc38.x86_64
        system: Linux
       version: Fedora Linux 38

Additional context
{% do salt['slsutil.update'](update_map, new) %} functions as I would expect when called with salt. By simply changing the command to salt-ssh, a different configuration is applied as the dictionary merge functions differently. This is troublesome when states are built upon this do salt['slsutil.update'] statement and successfully deployed with salt. If the need arises to use salt-ssh, the same input configuration produces a different output in an unexpected way.

Notable situations where salt and salt-ssh produce the same result:
{% do salt['slsutil.merge'](update_map, new) %}: slsutil.merge creates a deepcopy before manipulating the dictionary. This produces consistent results.
{% set final_map = salt['slsutil.update'](update_map, new) %}: Explicitly assigning the results to a variable using set rather than do produces consistent results.

Thank you.

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[lkubb]

This is caused by a missing SSH wrapper module for slsutil. Most of its functions should be executed on the caller's side (that does the rendering/compilation into lowstate), not the target.

[dwoz]

@lkubb Can this fix be back ported to 3006.x? If not, I think we should close this issue as resolved in 3007.x