Move to Collections

Ansible introduced collections in Ansible 2.8. More and more modules (that came with Ansible) will move to collections.

Ansible has changed a lot in the last few releases. It's a bit confusing, so here is my attempt to clear up what happened over time.

Package	Version	Description
ansible	<=2.7	Ansible and modules, all as a single package.
ansible	2.8	Introduced collections, all modules still shipped in this package.
ansible	2.10	Only collections, depends on ansible-base.
ansible-base	2.10	Just ansible, no collections.
ansible-core	2.11	Just ansible, no collections.
ansible	3.0.0	Just ansible, depends on ansible-base.

Okay, in other words;

1. There was a package called ansible including everything. (ansible<=2.7)
2. The package ansible contained only collections, not the framework. The framework is in ansible-base, which is a dependency of ansible. (ansible>=2.10<=3)
3. The package ansible-core contains the Ansible framework. (ansible==2.11)
4. The package ansible contains the Ansible framework. (ansible==3.*)

Wow, still confusing.

Adding translations.

The file from_to.txt contains lines that map the name of the old module to the new one. For example:

gluster_volume gluster.gluster.gluster_volume

Feel free to make pull requests to add more mappings.

Running the script.

Go into the directory of your role and run:

/path/to/move_to_collections/transform.sh

You'll get some output what the script is doing. Feel free to inspect the differences. Here is what you can expect:

1. The tasks/*.yml files will be transformed.
2. The handlers/main.yml file will be transformed.
3. The requirements.yml file will list all required collections.

See also

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOXiSaHbZVk