Pip module install of pycrypto deletes brewed Ansible's pycrypto, and other weirdness

[edrozenberg]

Ansible 1.9.0.1

Target:

# Mac hosts
[hosts_mac]
localhost ansible_connection=local

Using the Ansible pip module to install pycrypto leads to deletion of Homebrewed Ansible's pycrypto.

Uninstall any pycrypto, then fresh-install ansible:

pip uninstall pycrypto
brew uninstall ansible && brew install ansible

Brewed Ansible's embedded pycrypto is present:

$ ls /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/1.9.0.1/libexec/vendor/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ | grep pycrypto
pycrypto-2.6-py2.7.egg-info

Now set up and run the playbook:

# Install pycrypto
- name: install pycrypto
  pip: name=pycrypto executable=pip2 state=latest

Brewed Ansible's embedded pycrypto is gone!:

$ ls /usr/local/Cellar/ansible/1.9.0.1/libexec/vendor/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ | grep pycrypto
<blank>

And since there's no more pycrypto, Ansible now won't run:

ERROR: ansible-vault requires a newer version of pycrypto than the one installed on your platform. You may fix this with OS-specific commands such as: yum install python-devel; rpm -e --nodeps python-crypto; pip install pycrypto

Other weirdness - pyasn1 claimed installed but isn't:

# Install pycrypto
- name: install pyasn1
  pip: name=pyasn1 executable=pip2 state=latest

TASK: [desktop/mac | install pyasn1] ****************************************** 
ok: [localhost]

$ pip list |grep pyasn1
$ <nothing>

Manually works fine after that though:

$ pip install pyasn1
Collecting pyasn1
  Using cached pyasn1-0.1.7.tar.gz
Installing collected packages: pyasn1
  Running setup.py install for pyasn1
Successfully installed pyasn1-0.1.7

More weirdness: using state=latest, the pip module did not upgrade I believe it was paramiko. It claimed it did but then I manually ran

pip install --upgrade paramiko

and that performed an upgrade.

Don't know if this is all one issue or several but having a very wonky experience with the pip module. Don't know where to start guessing where the issue is, wish I did...

[edrozenberg]

I have an idea where to start guessing now :).

If I delete the pyasn1 from:

/usr/local/Cellar/ansible/1.9.0.1/libexec/vendor/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

And then run the Ansible playbook to install pyasn1, it then installs pyasn1 to

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

So the Ansible pip module is getting confused by looking at both of these site-packages dirs. It should only be looking at and modifying "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/". Maybe Ansible needs to remove the other dir from the env when running the pip executable so pip doesn't get confused? Or is this a homebrew problem with the way homebrew installs the various dependencies into Ansible's own site-packages?

[sivel]

It is not recommended to install ansible via homebrew due to weird things homebrew does. The recommended way to install ansible on a Mac is directly via pip as explained at http://docs.ansible.com/intro_installation.html#latest-releases-on-mac-osx

[edrozenberg]

Thanks, I'd seen that in the docs before but thought they'd just forgotten to mention HomeBrew. HomeBrew is the Mac People's Choice :). Will use pip now for Ansible.

[edrozenberg]

There's an open Homebrew issue that seems to be referencing the problems I observed. I'll add some comments there - Homebrew/legacy-homebrew#35647