1 files changed, 59 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/v2/ansible/plugins/inventory/__init__.py b/v2/ansible/plugins/inventory/__init__.py
index 785fc45992..41e8578ee7 100644
--- a/v2/ansible/plugins/inventory/__init__.py
+++ b/v2/ansible/plugins/inventory/__init__.py
@@ -15,7 +15,66 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
+#############################################
+
 # Make coding more python3-ish
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
+from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
+
+class InventoryParser:
+    '''Abstract Base Class for retrieving inventory information
+
+    Any InventoryParser functions by taking an inven_source.  The caller then
+    calls the parser() method.  Once parser is called, the caller can access
+    InventoryParser.hosts for a mapping of Host objects and
+    InventoryParser.Groups for a mapping of Group objects.
+    '''
+    __metaclass__ = ABCMeta
+
+    def __init__(self, inven_source):
+        '''
+        InventoryParser contructors take a source of inventory information
+        that they will parse the host and group information from.
+        '''
+        self.inven_source = inven_source
+        self.reset_parser()
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def reset_parser(self):
+        '''
+        InventoryParsers generally cache their data once parser() is
+        called.  This method initializes any parser state before calling parser
+        again.
+        '''
+        self.hosts = dict()
+        self.groups = dict()
+        self.parsed = False
+
+    def _merge(self, target, addition):
+        '''
+        This method is provided to InventoryParsers to merge host or group
+        dicts since it may take several passes to get all of the data
+
+        Example usage:
+            self.hosts = self.from_ini(filename)
+            new_hosts = self.from_script(scriptname)
+            self._merge(self.hosts, new_hosts)
+        '''
+        for i in addition:
+            if i in target:
+                target[i].merge(addition[i])
+            else:
+                target[i] = addition[i]
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def parse(self, refresh=False):
+        if refresh:
+            self.reset_parser()
+        if self.parsed:
+            return self.parsed
+
+        # Parse self.inven_sources here
+        pass
+