Automated Programs Installation for Developers

Why does this project exist?

As a software developer, you've probably faced this situation: every time you need to format your operating system, switch computers, or set up a new development environment, you have to spend hours (or days?) installing and configuring all the tools you use daily.

This manual process is:

• Extremely slow - It can take 4-8 hours of installation and configuration
• Tedious and repetitive - Always the same steps over and over again
• Error-prone - It's easy to forget to configure something important
• Hard to document - Do you remember exactly what you configured last time?

This project was born to solve exactly that problem!

I applied my DevOps knowledge to create an automated solution using Ansible that installs and configures my entire development environment in minutes instead of hours.

What does it do exactly?

This project automates the complete installation of:

• Development tools (IDEs, editors, terminals)
• Programming languages (Python, Node.js, Java, etc.)
• Package managers (npm, pip, yarn, etc.)
• Build tools (Docker, git, make, etc.)
• Common applications (browsers, communication, multimedia)
• Custom configurations (dotfiles, aliases, shortcuts)

All of this with a single command and no manual intervention.

Project Structure

automated-programs-installation/
├──  playbooks/                           # Ansible playbooks
│   ├── install_common_host_apps.yaml       # Common system applications
│   ├── install_developer_tools.yaml        # IDEs and development tools
│   ├── install_programming_languages.yaml  # Languages and their ecosystems
│   └── install_software_development_packages.yaml # Specific development packages
│
├──  roles/                               # Reusable Ansible roles
│   ├── common/                             # Base system configurations
│   ├── developer_tools/                    # IDEs and editors installation
│   ├── programming_languages/              # Language installation
│   └── software_development_packages/      # Packages and libraries
│
├──  group_vars/                          # Variables by host groups
├──  host_vars/                           # Host-specific variables
├──  .hosts                               # Ansible hosts inventory
├──  ansible.cfg                          # Ansible configuration

Quick Start

Prerequisites

# On Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ansible git

# On Fedora
sudo dnf install ansible git

# On Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ansible git

Installation and Usage

1. Clone this repository:

git clone <REPO_URL>
cd automated-programs-installation

2. Run the complete installation:

# This installs everything (common apps, programming languages, dev packages, and dev tools)
ansible-playbook playbooks/install_common_host_apps.yaml

Available Playbooks

install_common_host_apps.yaml

Installs essential operating system applications:

• Web browsers (Firefox, Chrome)
• Communication tools (Discord, Telegram, Slack)
• Multimedia players (VLC, Spotify)
• System utilities

Note: This playbook automatically imports and runs all other playbooks, installing the complete development environment.

install_developer_tools.yaml

Sets up the development environment:

• IDEs (Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm)
• Editors (Neovim, Sublime Text)
• Advanced terminals (Terminator, Alacritty)
• Version control tools (Git with configuration)

install_programming_languages.yaml

Installs languages and their ecosystems:

• Node.js (with npm, yarn, nvm)
• Go

install_software_development_packages.yaml

Installs specific development packages:

• Docker, Docker Compose and Podman
• Database tools (PostgreSQL, MySQL clients)

Modular Installation

Understanding the Playbook Chain

The playbooks are designed with a chain of dependencies:

1. install_common_host_apps.yaml → imports install_programming_languages.yaml
2. install_programming_languages.yaml → imports install_software_development_packages.yaml
3. install_software_development_packages.yaml → imports install_developer_tools.yaml

This means:

• Running install_common_host_apps.yaml installs everything
• Running install_programming_languages.yaml installs programming languages + dev packages + dev tools
• Running install_software_development_packages.yaml installs dev packages + dev tools
• Running install_developer_tools.yaml installs only dev tools

Running Individual Components

To run only specific components without their dependencies:

1. For common apps only:

   • Edit playbooks/install_common_host_apps.yaml
   • Remove the line: - import_playbook: install_programming_languages.yaml
   • Run: ansible-playbook playbooks/install_common_host_apps.yaml

2. For programming languages only:

   • Edit playbooks/install_programming_languages.yaml
   • Remove the line: - import_playbook: install_software_development_packages.yaml
   • Run: ansible-playbook playbooks/install_programming_languages.yaml

3. For dev packages only:

   • Edit playbooks/install_software_development_packages.yaml
   • Remove the line: - import_playbook: install_developer_tools.yaml
   • Run: ansible-playbook playbooks/install_software_development_packages.yaml

4. For dev tools only:

   • Run directly: ansible-playbook playbooks/install_developer_tools.yaml

This modular approach gives you complete control over what gets installed.

Customization

Configuration Variables

You can customize what gets installed by editing files in group_vars/ and host_vars/:

# group_vars/all.yaml
install_vscode: true
install_intellij: false
python_version: "3.11"
node_version: "18.17.0"

Adding New Programs

1. Edit the corresponding role in roles/
2. Add the installation tasks
3. Define necessary variables
4. Run the playbook

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Permission errors:

# Make sure your user is in sudoers
sudo usermod -aG sudo $USER

Ansible can't find inventory:

# Verify you're in the correct directory
pwd # Should show: .../automated-programs-installation

Connection failures:

# Check hosts configuration
ansible-inventory --list

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have additional tools you'd like to automate:

1. Fork the project
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/new-tool)
3. Add your changes
4. Commit (git commit -m 'Add: New development tool')
5. Push (git push origin feature/new-tool)
6. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more details.

Author

Created with ❤️ by a developer tired of wasting time setting up development environments.

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Found a bug? Open an issue and we'll fix it together.

Have an idea to improve it? 💡 Suggestions are always welcome!