Should you wish to get more involved -- whether in terms of just asking a question, helping other users, introducing new people to Ansible, or helping with the software or documentation, we welcome your contributions to the project.
Ansible questions are best asked on the `Ansible Google Group Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-project>`_.
This is a very large high-traffic list for answering questions and sharing tips
and tricks. Anyone can join, and email delivery is optional if you just want to read the group online. To cut down on spam, your first post is moderated, though posts are approved quickly.
Please be sure to share any relevant commands you ran, output, and detail, indicate the version of Ansible you are using when asking a question.
Where needed, link to gists or github repos to show examples, rather than sending attachments to the list.
We recommend using Google search to see if a topic has been answered recently, but comments found in older threads may no longer apply, depending on the topic.
Before you post, be sure you are running the latest stable version of Ansible. You can check this by comparing the output of 'ansible --version' with the version indicated on `PyPi <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ansible>`.
Alternatively, you can also join our IRC channel - #ansible on irc.freenode.net. It's a very high traffic channel as well, if you don't get an answer you like, please stop by our mailing list, which is more likely
to get attention of core developers since it's asynchronous.
I'd Like To Keep Up With Release Announcements
----------------------------------------------
Release announcements are posted to ansible-project, though if you don't want to keep up with the very active list, you can join the `Ansible Announce Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-announce>`_
This is a low-traffic read-only list, where we'll share release announcements and occasionally links to major Ansible Events around the world.
I'd Like To Help Share and Promote Ansible
------------------------------------------
You can help share Ansible with others by telling friends and colleagues, writing a blog post,
or presenting at user groups (like DevOps groups or the local LUG).
You are also welcome to share slides on speakerdeck, sign up for a free account and tag it “Ansible”. On Twitter,
you can also share things with #ansible and may wish to `follow us <https://twitter.com/ansible>`_.
I'd Like To Help Ansible Move Faster
------------------------------------
If you're a developer, one of the most valuable things you can do is look at the github issues list and help fix bugs. We almost always prioritize bug fixing over
feature development, so clearing bugs out of the way is one of the best things you can do.
If you're not a developer, helping test pull requests for bug fixes and features is still immensely valuable. You can do this by checking out ansible, making a test
branch off the main one, merging a GitHub issue, testing, and then commenting on that particular issue on GitHub.
Ansible practices responsible disclosure - if this is a security related bug, email `security@ansible.com <mailto:security@ansible.com>`_ instead of filing a ticket or posting to the Google Group and you will receive a prompt response.
MODULE related bugs however should go to `ansible-modules-core <github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core>`_ or `ansible-modules-extras <github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-extras>`_ based on the classification of the module. This is listed on the bottom of the docs page for any module.
When filing a bug, please use the `issue template <https://raw2.github.com/ansible/ansible/devel/ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md>`_ to provide all relevant information, regardless of what repo you are filing a ticket against.
Knowing your ansible version and the exact commands you are running, and what you expect, saves time and helps us help everyone with their issues
more quickly.
Do not use the issue tracker for "how do I do this" type questions. These are great candidates
for IRC or the mailing list instead where things are likely to be more of a discussion.
To be respectful of reviewers time and allow us to help everyone efficiently, please
provide minimal well-reduced and well-commented examples versus sharing your entire production
playbook. Include playbook snippets and output where possible.
When sharing YAML in playbooks, formatting can be preserved by using `code blocks <https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#fenced-code-blocks>`_.
For multiple-file content, we encourage use of gist.github.com. Online pastebin content can expire, so it's nice to have things around for a longer term if they
are referenced in a ticket.
If you are not sure if something is a bug yet, you are welcome to ask about something on
the mailing list or IRC first.
As we are a very high volume project, if you determine that
you do have a bug, please be sure to open the issue yourself to ensure we have a record of
it. Don’t rely on someone else in the community to file the bug report for you.
It may take some time to get to your report, see our information about priority flags below.
I'd Like To Help With Documentation
-----------------------------------
Ansible documentation is a community project too!
If you would like to help with the
documentation, whether correcting a typo or improving a section, or maybe even
documenting a new feature, submit a github pull request to the code that
lives in the “docsite/rst” subdirectory of the project for most pages, and there is an "Edit on GitHub"
Module documentation is generated from a DOCUMENTATION structure embedded in the source code of each module, which is in either the ansible-modules-core or ansible-modules-extra repos on github, depending on the module. Information about this is always listed on the bottom of the web documentation for each module.
`github.com/ansible/ansible <http://github.com/ansible/ansible>`_ for the core application, and two sub repos ansible/ansible-modules-core and ansible/ansible-modules-extras for module related items. If you need to know if a module is in 'core' or 'extras', consult the web documentation page for that module.
It is usually a good idea to join the ansible-devel list to discuss any large features prior to submission, and this especially helps in avoiding duplicate work or efforts where we decide, upon seeing a pull request for the first time, that revisions are needed. (This is not usually needed for module development, but can be nice for large changes).
Note that we do keep Ansible to a particular aesthetic, so if you are unclear about whether a feature
is a good fit or not, having the discussion on the development list is often a lot easier than having
to modify a pull request later.
When submitting patches, be sure to run the unit tests first “make tests” and always use
“git rebase” vs “git merge” (aliasing git pull to git pull --rebase is a great idea) to
avoid merge commits in your submissions. There are also integration tests that can be run in the "tests/integration" directory.
In order to keep the history clean and better audit incoming code, we will require resubmission of pull requests that contain merge commits. Use "git pull --rebase" vs "git pull" and "git rebase" vs "git merge". Also be sure to use topic branches to keep your additions on different branches, such that they won't pick up stray commits later.
We’ll then review your contributions and engage with you about questions and so on.
As we have a very large and active community, so it may take awhile to get your contributions
in! See the notes about priorities in a later section for understanding our work queue.
Patches should be made against the 'devel' branch.
Contributions can be for new features like modules, or to fix bugs you or others have found. If you
are interested in writing new modules to be included in the core Ansible distribution, please refer
to the `module development documentation <http://docs.ansible.com/developing_modules.html>`_.
Ansible's aesthetic encourages simple, readable code and consistent, conservatively extending,
backwards-compatible improvements. Code developed for Ansible needs to support Python 2.6+,
while code in modules must run under Python 2.4 or higher. Please also use a 4-space indent
and no tabs.
Tip: To easily run from a checkout, source "./hacking/env-setup" and that's it -- no install
required. You're now live!
Other Topics
============
Ansible Staff
-------------
Ansible, Inc is a company supporting Ansible and building additional solutions based on
Ansible. We also do services and support for those that are interested.
Our most
important task however is enabling all the great things that happen in the Ansible
community, including organizing software releases of Ansible. For more information about
any of these things, contact info@ansible.com
On IRC, you can find us as mdehaan, jimi_c, abadger1999, Tybstar, and others. On the mailing list,
we post with an @ansible.com address.
Mailing List Information
------------------------
Ansible has several mailing lists. Your first post to the mailing list will be
moderated (to reduce spam), so please allow a day or less for your first post.
`Ansible Project List <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-project>`_ is for sharing Ansible Tips, answering questions, and general user discussion.
`Ansible Development List <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-devel>`_ is for learning how to develop on Ansible, asking about prospective feature design, or discussions
about extending ansible or features in progress.
`Ansible Announce list <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-announce>`_ is a read-only list that shares information about new releases of Ansible, and also rare infrequent
event information, such as announcements about an AnsibleFest coming up, which is our official conference series.
To subscribe to a group from a non-google account, you can email the subscription address, for
example ansible-devel+subscribe@googlegroups.com.
Release Numbering
-----------------
Releases ending in ".0" are major releases and this is where all new features land. Releases ending
in another integer, like "0.X.1" and "0.X.2" are dot releases, and these are only going to contain
bugfixes.
Typically we don't do dot releases for minor bugfixes (reserving these for larger items),
but may occasionally decide to cut dot releases containing a large number of smaller fixes if it's still a fairly long time before
the next release comes out.
Releases are also given code names based on Van Halen songs, that no one really uses.
treat others as you expect to be treated, keep discussions positive, and avoid discrimination of all kinds, profanity, allegations of Cthulhu worship, or engaging in controversial debates (except vi vs emacs is cool).
The same expectations apply to community events as they do to online interactions.
Posts to mailing lists should remain focused around Ansible and IT automation. Abuse of these community guidelines will not be tolerated and may result in banning from community resources.
Contributors License Agreement
------------------------------
By contributing you agree that these contributions are your own (or approved by your employer)
and you grant a full, complete, irrevocable
copyright license to all users and developers of the project, present and future, pursuant
