Add explicit substitution of relative paths on the remote host just in case the connection programs do something unexpected.

lib/ansible/plugins/connection/zone.py

@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ __metaclass__ = type
 
 import distutils.spawn
 import os
+import os.path
 import subprocess
 import traceback
 
@@ -116,8 +117,6 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         local_cmd = [self.zlogin_cmd, self.zone, executable, '-c', cmd]
 
         self._display.vvv("EXEC %s" % (local_cmd), host=self.zone)
-        # FIXME: cwd= should be set to the basedir of the playbook, which
-        # should come from loader but is not in the connection plugins
         p = subprocess.Popen(local_cmd, shell=False, stdin=stdin,
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
 
@@ -139,11 +138,26 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         stdout, stderr = p.communicate(in_data)
         return (p.returncode, stdout, stderr)
 
+    def _prefix_login_path(self, remote_path):
+        ''' Make sure that we put files into a standard path
+
+            If a path is relative, then we need to choose where to put it.
+            ssh chooses $HOME but we aren't guaranteed that a home dir will
+            exist in any given chroot.  So for now we're choosing "/" instead.
+            This also happens to be the former default.
+
+            Can revisit using $HOME instead if it's a problem
+        '''
+        if not remote_path.startswith(os.path.sep):
+            remote_path = os.path.join(os.path.sep, remote_path)
+        return os.path.normpath(remote_path)
+
     def put_file(self, in_path, out_path):
         ''' transfer a file from local to zone '''
         super(Connection, self).put_file(in_path, out_path)
         self._display.vvv("PUT %s TO %s" % (in_path, out_path), host=self.zone)
 
+        out_path = self._prefix_login_path(out_path)
         try:
             with open(in_path, 'rb') as in_file:
                 try:
@@ -165,6 +179,7 @@ class Connection(ConnectionBase):
         super(Connection, self).fetch_file(in_path, out_path)
         self._display.vvv("FETCH %s TO %s" % (in_path, out_path), host=self.zone)
 
+        in_path = self._prefix_login_path(in_path)
         try:
             p = self._buffered_exec_command('dd if=%s bs=%s' % (in_path, BUFSIZE))
         except OSError: