Fix unexpected exception when a role has an empty argument_specs.yml (#75604)

* Fix role with empty argument_specs.yml

* Use try/except and add changelog fragment

* Always return a dict

* Add test for empty argument_specs key

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/lib/ansible/playbook/role/__init__.py b/lib/ansible/playbook/role/__init__.py
index b88f247896..43d4b27152 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/playbook/role/__init__.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/playbook/role/__init__.py
@@ -294,7 +294,10 @@ class Role(Base, Conditional, Taggable, CollectionSearch):
             if self._loader.path_exists(full_path):
                 # Note: _load_role_yaml() takes care of rebuilding the path.
                 argument_specs = self._load_role_yaml('meta', main='argument_specs')
-                return argument_specs.get('argument_specs', {})
+                try:
+                    return argument_specs.get('argument_specs') or {}
+                except AttributeError:
+                    return {}
 
         # We did not find the meta/argument_specs.[yml|yaml] file, so use the spec
         # dict from the role meta data, if it exists. Ansible 2.11 and later will