Ansible Changes By Release

1.0 "Eruption" -- release pending

...

0.9 "Dreams" -- Nov 30 2012

Highlighted core changes:

various performance tweaks, ansible executes dramatically less SSH ops per unit of work
close paramiko SFTP connections less often on copy/template operations (speed increase)
change the way we use multiprocessing (speed/RAM usage improvements)
able to set default for asking password & sudo password in config file
ansible now installs nicely if running inside a virtualenv
flag to allow SSH connection to move files by scp vs sftp (in config file)
additional RPM subpackages for easily installing fireball mode deps (server and node)
group_vars/host_vars now available to ansible, not just playbooks
native ssh connection type (-c ssh) now supports passwords as well as keys
ansible-doc program to show details

Other core changes:

fix for template calls when last character is '$'
if ansible_python_interpreter is set on a delegated host, it now works as intended
--limit can now take "," as seperator as well as ";" or ":"
msg is now displaced with newlines when a task fails
if any with_ plugin has no results in a list (empty list for with_items, etc), the task is now skipped
various output formatting fixes/improvements
fix for Xen dom0/domU detection in default facts
'ansible_domain' fact now available (ex value: example.com)
configured remote temp file location is now always used even for root
'register'-ed variables are not recorded for skipped hosts (for example, using only_if/when)
duplicate host records for the same host can no longer result when a host is listed in multiple groups
ansible-pull now passes --limit to prevent running on multiple hosts when used with generic playbooks
remote md5sum check fixes for Solaris 10
ability to configure syslog facility used by remote module calls
in templating, stray '$' characters are now handled more correctly

Playbook changes:

relative paths now work for 'first_available_file'
various templating engine fixes
'when' is an easier form of only if
--list-hosts on the playbook command now supports multiple playbooks on the same command line
playbook includes can now be parameterized

Module additions:

(addhost) new module for adding a temporary host record (used for creating new guests)
(group_by) module allows partitioning hosts based on group data
(ec2) new module for creating ec2 hosts
(script) added 'script' module for pushing and running self-deleting remote scripts
(svr4pkg) solaris svr4pkg module

Module changes:

(authorized key) module uses temp file now to prevent failure on full disk
(fetch) now uses the 'slurp' internal code to work as you would expect under sudo'ed accounts
(fetch) internal usage of md5 sums fixed for BSD
(get_url) thirsty is no longer required for directory destinations
(git) various git module improvements/tweaks
(group) now subclassed for various platforms, includes SunOS support
(lineinfile) create= option on lineinfile can create the file when it does not exist
(mysql_db) module takes new grant options
(postgresql_db) module now takes role_attr_flags
(service) further upgrades to service module service status reporting
(service) tweaks to get service module to play nice with BSD style service systems (rc.conf)
(service) possible to pass additional arguments to services
(shell) and command module now take an 'executable=' flag for specifying an alternate shell than /bin/sh
(user) ability to create SSH keys for users when using user module to create users
(user) atomic replacement of files preserves permissions of original file
(user) module can create SSH keys
(user) module now does Solaris and BSD
(yum) module takes enablerepo= and disablerepo=
(yum) misc yum module fixing for various corner cases

Plugin changes:

EC2 inventory script now produces nicer failure message if AWS is down (or similar)
plugin loading code now more streamlined
lookup plugins for DNS text records, environment variables, and redis
added a template lookup plugin $TEMPLATE('filename.j2')
various tweaks to the EC2 inventory plugin
jinja2 filters are now pluggable so it's easy to write your own (to_json/etc, are now impl. as such)

0.8 "Cathedral" -- Oct 19, 2012

Highlighted Core Changes:

fireball mode -- ansible can bootstrap a ephemeral 0mq (zeromq) daemon that runs as a given user and expires after X period of time. It is very fast.
playbooks with errors now return 2 on failure. 1 indicates a more fatal syntax error. Similar for /usr/bin/ansible
server side action code (template, etc) are now fully pluggable
ability to write lookup plugins, like the code powering "with_fileglob" (see below)

Other Core Changes:

ansible config file can also go in '.ansible.cfg' in cwd in addition to ~/.ansible.cfg and /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg
fix for inventory hosts at API level when hosts spec is a list and not a colon delimited string
ansible-pull example now sets up logrotate for the ansible-pull cron job log
negative host matching (!hosts) fixed for external inventory script usage
internals: os.executable check replaced with utils function so it plays nice on AIX
Debian packaging now includes ansible-pull manpage
magic variable 'ansible_ssh_host' can override the hostname (great for usage with tunnels)
date command usage in build scripts fixed for OS X
don't use SSH agent with paramiko if a password is specified
make output be cleaner on multi-line command/shell errors
/usr/bin/ansible now prints things when tasks are skipped, like when creates= is used with -m command and /usr/bin/ansible
when trying to async a module that is not a 'normal' asyncable module, ansible will now let you know
ability to access inventory variables via 'hostvars' for hosts not yet included in any play, using on demand lookups
merged ansible-plugins, ansible-resources, and ansible-docs into the main project
you can set ANSIBLE_NOCOWS=1 if you want to disable cowsay if it is installed. Though no one should ever want to do this! Cows are great!
you can set ANSIBLE_FORCECOLOR=1 to force color mode even when running without a TTY
fatal errors are now properly colored red.
skipped messages are now cyan, to differentiate them from unchanged messages.
extensive documentation upgrades
delegate_action to localhost (aka local_action) will always use the local connection type

Highlighted playbook changes:

is_set is available for use inside of an only_if expression: is_set('ansible_eth0'). We intend to further upgrade this with a 'when' keyword providing better options to 'only_if' in the next release. Also is_unset('ansible_eth0')
playbooks can import playbooks in other directories and then be able to import tasks relative to them
FILE($path) now allows access of contents of file in a path, very good for use with SSH keys
similarly PIPE($command) will run a local command and return the results of executing this command
if all hosts in a play fail, stop the playbook, rather than letting the console log spool on by
only_if using register variables that are booleans now works in a boolean way like you'd expect
task includes now work with with_items (such as: include: path/to/wordpress.yml user=$item)
when using a $list variable with $var or ${var} syntax it will automatically join with commas
setup is not run more than once when we know it is has already been run in a play that included another play, etc
can set/override sudo and sudo_user on individual tasks in a play, defaults to what is set in the play if not present
ability to use with_fileglob to iterate over local file patterns
templates now use Jinja2's 'trim_blocks=True' to avoid stray newlines, small changes to templates may be required in rare cases.

Other playbook changes:

to_yaml and from_yaml are available as Jinja2 filters
$group and $group_names are now accessible in with_items
where 'stdout' is provided a new 'stdout_lines' variable (type == list) is now generated and usable with with_items
when local_action is used the transport is automatically overridden to the local type
output on failed playbook commands is now nicely split for stderr/stdout and syntax errors
if local_action is not used and delegate_to was 127.0.0.1 or localhost, use local connection regardless
when running a playbook, and the statement has changed, prints 'changed:' now versus 'ok:' so it is obvious without colored mode
variables now usable within vars_prompt (just not host/group vars)
setup facts are now retained across plays (dictionary just gets updated as needed)
--sudo-user now works with --extra-vars
fix for multi_line strings with only_if

New Modules:

ini_file module for manipulating INI files
new LSB facts (release, distro, etc)
pause module -- (pause seconds=10) (pause minutes=1) (pause prompt=foo) -- it's an action plugin
a module for adding entries to the main crontab (though you may still wish to just drop template files into cron.d)
debug module can be used for outputing messages without using 'shell echo'
a fail module is now available for causing errors, you might want to use it with only_if to fail in certain conditions

Other module Changes, Upgrades, and Fixes:

removes= exists on command just like creates=
postgresql modules now take an optional port= parameter
/proc/cmdline info is now available in Linux facts
public host key detection for OS X
lineinfile module now uses 'search' not exact 'match' in regexes, making it much more intuitive and not needing regex syntax most of the time
added force=yes|no (default no) option for file module, which allows transition between files to directories and so on
additional facts for SunOS virtualization
copy module is now atomic when used across volumes
url_get module now returns 'dest' with the location of the file saved
fix for yum module when using local RPMs vs downloading
cleaner error messages with copy if destination directory does not exist
setup module now still works if PATH is not set
service module status now correct for services with 'subsys locked' status
misc fixes/upgrades to the wait_for module
git module now expands any "~" in provided destination paths
ignore stop error code failure for service module with state=restarted, always try to start
inline documentation for modules allows documentation source to built without pull requests to the ansible-docs project, among other things
variable '$ansible_managed' is now great to include at the top of your templates and includes useful information and a warning that it will be replaced
"~" now expanded in command module when using creates/removes
mysql module can do dumps and imports
selinux policy is only required if setting to not disabled
various fixes for yum module when working with packages not in any present repo

0.7 "Panama" -- Sept 6 2012

Module changes:

login_unix_socket option for mysql user and database modules (see PR #781 for doc notes)
new modules -- pip, easy_install, apt_repository, supervisorctl
error handling for setup module when SELinux is in a weird state
misc yum module fixes
better changed=True/False detection in user module on older Linux distros
nicer errors from modules when arguments are not key=value
backup option on copy (backup=yes), as well as template, assemble, and lineinfile
file module will not recurse on directory properties
yum module now workable without having repoquery installed, but doesn't support comparisons or list= if so
setup module now detects interfaces with aliases
better handling of VM guest type detection in setup module
new module boilerplate code to check for mutually required arguments, arguments required together, exclusive args
add pattern= as a paramter to the service module (for init scripts that don't do status, or do poor status)
various fixes to mysql & postresql modules
added a thirsty= option (boolean, default no) to the get_url module to decide to download the file every time or not
added a wait_for module to poll for ports being open
added a nagios module for controlling outage windows and alert statuses
added a seboolean module for getsebool/setsebool type operations
added a selinux module for controlling overall SELinux policy
added a subversion module
added lineinfile for adding and removing lines from basic files
added facts for ARM-based CPUs
support for systemd in the service module
git moduleforce reset behavior is now controllable
file module can now operate on special files (block devices, etc)

Core changes:

ansible --version will now give branch/SHA information if running from git
better sudo permissions when encountering different umasks
when using paramiko and SFTP is not accessible, do not traceback, but return a nice human readable msg
use -vvv for extreme debug levels. -v gives more playbook output as before
-vv shows module arguments to all module calls (and maybe some other things later)
don not pass "--" to sudo to work on older EL5
make remote_md5 internal function work with non-bash shells
allow user to be passed in via --extra-vars (regression)
add --limit option, which can be used to further confine the pattern given in ansible-playbooks
adds ranged patterns like dbservers[0-49] for usage with patterns or --limit
-u and user: defaults to current user, rather than root, override as before
/etc/ansible/ansible.cfg and ~/ansible.cfg now available to set default values and other things
(developers) ANSIBLE_KEEP_REMOTE_FILES=1 can be used in debugging (envrionment variable)
(developers) connection types are now plugins
(developers) callbacks can now be extended via plugins
added FreeBSD ports packaging scripts
check for terminal properties prior to engaging color modes
explicitly disable password auth with -c ssh, as it is not used anyway

Playbooks:

YAML syntax errors detected and show where the problem is
if you ctrl+c a playbook it will not traceback (usually)
vars_prompt now has encryption options (see examples/playbooks/prompts.yml)
allow variables in parameterized task include parameters (regression)
add ability to store the result of any command in a register (see examples/playbooks/register_logic.yml)
--list-hosts to show what hosts are included in each play of a playbook
fix a variable ordering issue that could affect vars_files with selective file source lists
adds 'delegate_to' for a task, which can be used to signal outage windows and load balancers on behalf of hosts
adds 'serial' to playbook, allowing you to specify how many hosts can be processing a playbook at one time (default 0=all)
adds 'local_action: ' as an alias to 'delegate_to: 127.0.0.1'

0.6 "Cabo" -- August 6, 2012

playbooks:

support to tag tasks and includes and use --tags in playbook CLI
playbooks can now include other playbooks (example/playbooks/nested_playbooks.yml)
vars_files now usable with with_items, provided file paths don't contain host specific facts
error reporting if with_items value is unbound
with_items no longer creates lots of tasks, creates one task that makes multiple calls
can use host_specific facts inside with_items (see above)
at the top level of a playbook, set 'gather_facts: no' to skip fact gathering
first_available_file and with_items used together will now raise an error
to catch typos, like 'var' for 'vars', playbooks and tasks now yell on invalid parameters
automatically load (directory_of_inventory_file)/group_vars/groupname and /host_vars/hostname in vars_files
playbook is now colorized, set ANSIBLE_NOCOLOR=1 if you do not like this, does not colorize if not a TTY
hostvars now preserved between plays (regression in 0.5 from 0.4), useful for sharing vars in multinode configs
ignore_errors: yes on a task can be used to allow a task to fail and not stop the play
with_items with the apt/yum module will install/remove/update everything in a single command

inventory:

groups variable available as a hash to return the hosts in each group name
in YAML inventory, hosts can list their groups in inverted order now also (see tests/yaml_hosts)
YAML inventory is deprecated and will be removed in 0.7
ec2 inventory script
support ranges of hosts in the host file, like www[001-100].example.com (supports leading zeros and also not)

modules:

fetch module now does not fail a system when requesting file paths (ex: logs) that don't exist
apt module now takes an optional install-recommends=yes|no (default yes)
fixes to the return codes of the copy module
copy module takes a remote md5sum to avoid large file transfer
various user and group module fixes (error handling, etc)
apt module now takes an optional force parameter
slightly better psychic service status handling for the service module
fetch module fixes for SSH connection type
modules now consistently all take yes/no for boolean parameters (and DWIM on true/false/1/0/y/n/etc)
setup module no longer saves to disk, template module now only used in playbooks
setup module no longer needs to run twice per playbook
apt module now passes DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
mount module (manages active mounts + fstab)
setup module fixes if no ipv6 support
internals: template in common module boilerplate, also causes less SSH operations when used
git module fixes
setup module overhaul, more modular
minor caching logic added to inventory to reduce hammering of inventory scripts.
MySQL and PostgreSQL modules for user and db management
vars_prompt now supports private password entry (see examples/playbooks/prompts.yml)
yum module modified to be more tolerant of plugins spewing random console messages (ex: RHN)

internals:

when sudoing to root, still use /etc/ansible/setup as the metadata path, as if root
paramiko is now only imported if needed when running from source checkout
cowsay support on Ubuntu
various ssh connection fixes for old Ubuntu clients
./hacking/test-module now supports options like ansible takes and has a debugger mode
sudoing to a user other than root now works more seamlessly (uses /tmp, avoids umask issues)

0.5 "Amsterdam" ------- July 04, 2012

Service module gets more accurate service states when running with upstart
Jinja2 usage in playbooks (not templates), reinstated, supports %include directive
support for --connection ssh (supports Kerberos, bastion hosts, etc), requires ControlMaster
misc tracebacks replaced with error messages
various API/internals refactoring
vars can be built from other variables
support for exclusion of hosts/groups with "!groupname"
various changes to support md5 tool differences for FreeBSD nodes & OS X clients
"unparseable" command output shows in command output for easier debugging
mktemp is no longer required on remotes (not available on BSD)
support for older versions of python-apt in the apt module
a new "assemble" module, for constructing files from pieces of files (inspired by Puppet "fragments" idiom)
ability to override most default values with ANSIBLE_FOO environment variables
--module-path parameter can support multiple directories seperated with the OS path seperator
with_items can take a variable of type list
ansible_python_interpreter variable available for systems with more than one Python
BIOS and VMware "fact" upgrades
cowsay is used by ansible-playbook if installed to improve output legibility (try installing it)
authorized_key module
SELinux facts now sourced from the python selinux library
removed module debug option -D
added --verbose, which shows output from successful playbook operations
print the output of the raw command inside /usr/bin/ansible as with command/shell
basic setup module support for Solaris
./library relative to the playbook is always in path so modules can be included in tarballs with playbooks

0.4 "Unchained" ------- May 23, 2012

Internals/Core

internal inventory API now more object oriented, parsers decoupled
async handling improvements
misc fixes for running ansible on OS X (overlord only)
sudo improvements, now works much more smoothly
sudo to a particular user with -U/--sudo-user, or using 'sudo_user: foo' in a playbook
--private-key CLI option to work with pem files

Inventory

can use -i host1,host2,host3:port to specify hosts not in inventory (replaces --override-hosts)
ansible INI style format can do groups of groups [groupname:children] and group vars [groupname:vars]
groups and users module takes an optional system=yes|no on creation (default no)
list of hosts in playbooks can be expressed as a YAML list in addition to ; delimited

Playbooks

variables can be replaced like ${foo.nested_hash_key.nested_subkey[array_index]}
unicode now ok in templates (assumes utf8)
able to pass host specifier or group name in to "hosts:" with --extra-vars
ansible-pull script and example playbook (extreme scaling, remediation)
inventory_hostname variable available that contains the value of the host as ansible knows it
variables in the 'all' section can be used to define other variables based on those values
'group_names' is now a variable made available to templates
first_available_file feature, see selective_file_sources.yml in examples/playbooks for info
--extra-vars="a=2 b=3" etc, now available to inject parameters into playbooks from CLI

Incompatible Changes

jinja2 is only usable in templates, not playbooks, use $foo instead
--override-hosts removed, can use -i with comma notation (-i "ahost,bhost")
modules can no longer include stderr output (paramiko limitation from sudo)

Module Changes

tweaks to SELinux implementation for file module
fixes for yum module corner cases on EL5
file module now correctly returns the mode in octal
fix for symlink handling in the file module
service takes an enable=yes|no which works with chkconfig or updates-rc.d as appropriate
service module works better on Ubuntu
git module now does resets and such to work more smoothly on updates
modules all now log to syslog
enabled=yes|no on a service can be used to toggle chkconfig & updates-rc.d states
git module supports branch=
service fixes to better detect status using return codes of the service script
custom facts provided by the setup module mean no dependency on Ruby, facter, or ohai
service now has a state=reloaded
raw module for bootstrapping and talking to routers w/o Python, etc

Misc Bugfixes

fixes for variable parsing in only_if lines
misc fixes to key=value parsing
variables with mixed case now legal
fix to internals of hacking/test-module development script

0.3 "Baluchitherium" -- April 23, 2012

Packaging for Debian, Gentoo, and Arch
Improvements to the apt and yum modules
A virt module
SELinux support for the file module
Ability to use facts from other systems in templates (aka exported resources like support)
Built in Ansible facts so you don't need ohai, facter, or Ruby
tempdir selections that work with noexec mounted /tmp
templates happen locally, not remotely, so no dependency on python-jinja2 for remote computers
advanced inventory format in YAML allows more control over variables per host and per group
variables in playbooks can be structured/nested versus just a flat namespace
manpage upgrades (docs)
various bugfixes
can specify a default --user for playbooks rather than specifying it in the playbook file
able to specify ansible port in ansible host file (see docs)
refactored Inventory API to make it easier to write scripts using Ansible
looping capability for playbooks (with_items)
support for using sudo with a password
module arguments can be unicode
A local connection type, --connection=local, for use with cron or in kickstarts
better module debugging with -D
fetch module for pulling in files from remote hosts
command task supports creates=foo for idempotent semantics, won't run if file foo already exists

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