[pip] Enable virtualenv_command to have arguments

Currently if virtualenv_command has arguments, then the
search for the binary in the path does not work so the
user has to specify the full path to it.

To allow arguments to be used without having to specify
the path to the binary, we split the module argument into
the command and anything after the first space.

This makes using this module argument more flexible and
user friendly.

Fixes: #52275
(cherry picked from commit da390b297e64878512bd96ffde4283bb0694c9b5)

3 files changed, 47 insertions, 10 deletions

diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/67407-pip-virtualenv_command-args.yml b/changelogs/fragments/67407-pip-virtualenv_command-args.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b072a17f48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/67407-pip-virtualenv_command-args.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+bugfixes:
+  - pip - The virtualenv_command option can now include arguments without
+    requiring the full path to the binary.
+    (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/52275)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
index 19744623d0..9ce74e6b09 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/packaging/language/pip.py
@@ -471,23 +471,30 @@ def setup_virtualenv(module, env, chdir, out, err):
     if module.check_mode:
         module.exit_json(changed=True)
 
-    cmd = module.params['virtualenv_command']
-    if os.path.basename(cmd) == cmd:
-        cmd = module.get_bin_path(cmd, True)
+    cmd = shlex.split(module.params['virtualenv_command'])
 
+    # Find the binary for the command in the PATH
+    # and switch the command for the explicit path.
+    if os.path.basename(cmd[0]) == cmd[0]:
+        cmd[0] = module.get_bin_path(cmd[0], True)
+
+    # Add the system-site-packages option if that
+    # is enabled, otherwise explicitly set the option
+    # to not use system-site-packages if that is an
+    # option provided by the command's help function.
     if module.params['virtualenv_site_packages']:
-        cmd += ' --system-site-packages'
+        cmd.append('--system-site-packages')
     else:
-        cmd_opts = _get_cmd_options(module, cmd)
+        cmd_opts = _get_cmd_options(module, cmd[0])
         if '--no-site-packages' in cmd_opts:
-            cmd += ' --no-site-packages'
+            cmd.append('--no-site-packages')
 
     virtualenv_python = module.params['virtualenv_python']
     # -p is a virtualenv option, not compatible with pyenv or venv
-    # this if validates if the command being used is not any of them
+    # this conditional validates if the command being used is not any of them
     if not any(ex in module.params['virtualenv_command'] for ex in ('pyvenv', '-m venv')):
         if virtualenv_python:
-            cmd += ' -p%s' % virtualenv_python
+            cmd.append('-p%s' % virtualenv_python)
         elif PY3:
             # Ubuntu currently has a patch making virtualenv always
             # try to use python2.  Since Ubuntu16 works without
@@ -495,7 +502,7 @@ def setup_virtualenv(module, env, chdir, out, err):
             # the upstream behaviour of using the python which invoked
             # virtualenv to determine which python is used inside of
             # the virtualenv (when none are specified).
-            cmd += ' -p%s' % sys.executable
+            cmd.append('-p%s' % sys.executable)
 
     # if venv or pyvenv are used and virtualenv_python is defined, then
     # virtualenv_python is ignored, this has to be acknowledged
@@ -505,7 +512,7 @@ def setup_virtualenv(module, env, chdir, out, err):
                 ' using the venv module or pyvenv as virtualenv_command'
         )
 
-    cmd = "%s %s" % (cmd, env)
+    cmd.append(env)
     rc, out_venv, err_venv = module.run_command(cmd, cwd=chdir)
     out += out_venv
     err += err_venv
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml b/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
index 5018cd11e4..09640176f4 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/pip/tasks/pip.yml
@@ -525,6 +525,32 @@
       that: "'distribute' in remove_distribute.cmd"
   when: ansible_python.version.major == 2
 
+### test virtualenv_command begin ###
+
+- name: Test virtualenv command with arguments
+  when: "ansible_system == 'Linux'"
+  block:
+    - name: make sure the virtualenv does not exist
+      file:
+        state: absent
+        name: "{{ output_dir }}/pipenv"
+
+    # ref: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/52275
+    - name: install using virtualenv_command with arguments
+      pip:
+        name: "{{ pip_test_package }}"
+        virtualenv: "{{ output_dir }}/pipenv"
+        virtualenv_command: "virtualenv --verbose"
+        state: present
+      register: version13
+
+    - name: ensure install using virtualenv_command with arguments was successful
+      assert:
+        that:
+          - "version13 is success"
+
+### test virtualenv_command end ###
+
 # https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/68592
 # Handle pre-release version numbers in check_mode for already-installed
 # packages.