Summary

Hi FreeIPA Team

Would you mind to add an API-visible serial/generation value for host and hostgroup data, so API clients can cheaply detect whether cached inventory data is still valid.

Use case: Ansible dynamic inventory generated from FreeIPA via API only.

Example script:

https://github.com/joe-speedboat/linux.scripts/blob/master/ansible/ansible_dynamic_inventory_freeipa_api.py

The script currently has to cache by TTL and rebuild inventory by calling host_find, hostgroup_find, and hostgroup_show for hostgroup membership, including nested groups. This works, but it either risks stale inventory or causes unnecessary API calls when nothing changed. The current script uses a fixed cache TTL and full rebuild after expiry. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

Requested feature

Expose a cheap API-callable value, for example:

host_inventory_serial

or:

host_serial
hostgroup_serial

The value should change when inventory-relevant data changes, including:

• host add/delete/modify/rename
• hostgroup add/delete/modify/rename
• hostgroup membership changes
• nested hostgroup membership changes

Desired client behavior

current_serial = ipa_api_call("host_inventory_serial")
if current_serial == cached_serial:
    use cached inventory
else:
    rebuild inventory
    store new serial with cache

Why this helps

Without such a value, API-only clients must either:

• use TTL-based caching,
• rebuild inventory often,
• or fetch and hash large host_find / hostgroup_find results only to detect whether anything changed.

An API-level serial would reduce server load, simplify clients, and allow deterministic cache invalidation without requiring direct LDAP access to operational attributes such as modifyTimestamp or entryUSN.

Note

The value should ideally be stable/comparable across FreeIPA replicas, because clients may be configured with multiple FreeIPA servers.