ansible/CHANGELOG.md

Ansible Changes By Release

1.3 "Top of the World" - Release pending!

Major new features:

• (DOCS PENDING) new /etc/ansible/facts.d allows JSON or INI style facts to be provided from the remote node, and supports executable fact programs in this dir. Files must end in *.fact.
• ability to make undefined template variables raise errors, see ansible.cfg
• (DOCS PENDING) sudo: True/False and sudo_user: True/False can set at include and role level
• added changed_when: (expression) which allows overriding whether a result is changed or not, can work with registered expressions.

New modules:

• notifications: datadog_event -- send data to datadog
• cloud: digital_ocean -- module for digital ocean provisioning, also includes inventory module
• cloud: rds -- Amazon relational database service
• cloud: linode -- also included, an inventory module
• cloud: route53 -- manage Amazon DNS entries
• cloud: ec2_ami -- manages (including creates!) ec2 AMIs
• net_infrastructure: arista_
• system: stat -- reports on stat(istics) of remote files, for use with 'register'
• htpasswd -- manipulate htpasswd files

Misc changes:

• Added OpenRC support (Gentoo) to the service module
• ansible_ssh_user value is available to templates
• added placement_group parameter to ec2 module
• new sha256 parameter to get_url module for validation
• search for mount binaries in system path and sbin vs assuming path
• allowed inventory file to be read from a pipe
• added Solaris distribution facts
• fixed bug along error path in quantum_network module
• user password update mode is controllable in user module now (creation vs every time)
• added check mode support to the OpenBSD package module
• Fix for MySQL 5.6 compatibility
• HP UX virtualization facts
• fixed some executable bits in git
• made rhn_register module compatible with EL5
• fix for setup module epoch time in Solaris
• sudo_user is now expanded later allowing to be set at inventory scope
• mondodb_user module change to also support MongoDB 2.2
• new state=hard option to the file module for hardlinks vs softlinks
• fixes to apt module purging option behavior
• fixes for device facts with multiple PCI domains
• added "with_inventory_hostnames" lookup plugin, which can take a pattern and loop over hostnames matching the pattern and is great for use with delegate_to and so on.
• ec2 module supports adding to multiple security groups
• cloudformation module fix down the error path, removed 'wait_for' parameter
• added --only-if-changed to ansible-pull, which runs only if the repo has changes (not default)
• added 'mandatory', a Jinja2 filter that checks if a variable is defined: {{ foo|mandatory }}
• added support for multiple size formats to the lvol module
• timing reporting on wait_for module now includes the delay time
• IRC module can now send a server password
• "~" now expanded on each component of configured plugin paths
• fix for easy_install module when dealing with virtualenv
• rackspace module now explicitly indicates rackspace vs vanilla openstack
• add_host module does not report changed=True any longer
• explanatory error message when using fireball with sudo message has been improved
• git module now automatically pulls down git submodules
• negated patterns do not require "all:!foo", you can just say "!foo" now to select all not foos.
• fix for Debian services always reporting changed when toggling enablement bit
• roles files now tolerate files named 'main.yaml' and 'main' in addition to main.yaml
• some help cleanup to command line flags on scripts
• force option reinstated for file module, can create symlinks to non-existant files, etc
• added termination support to ec2 module
• --ask-sudo-pass or --sudo-user does not enable all options to use sudo in ansible-playbook
• include/role conditionals are added ahead of task conditionals so they can short circuit properly
• added pipes.quote in various places so paths with spaces are better tolerated
• error handling while executing Jinja2 filters has been improved
• upgrades to atomic replacement logic when copying files across partitions/etc
• mysql user module can try to login before requiring explicit password
• various additional options to supervisorctl module
• only add non unique parameter on group creation when required
• allow rabbitmq_plugin to specify a non-standard rabbitmq path
• authentatication fixes to keystone_user module
• added IAM role support to EC2 module
• fixes for OpenBSD package module to avoid shell expansion
• git module upgrades to allow --depth and --version to be used together
• new lookup plugin, "with_flat_list"
• extra vars (-e) variables can be used in playbook include paths
• improved reporting for invalid sudo passwords
• improved reporting for inability to find a suitable tmp location
• require libselinux-python to perform file operations if SELinux is operational.
• ZFS module fixes for byte display constants and handling paths with spaces
• setup module more tolerant of gathering facts against things it does not have permission to read
• can specify name=* state=latest to update all yum modules
• major speedups to the yum module for default cases
• ec2_facts module will now run in check mode
• sleep option on service module for sleeping between stop/restart
• fix for IPv6 facts on BSD
• added Jinja2 filters: skipped, whether a result was skipped
• added Jinja2 filters: quote, quotes a string if it needs to be quoted
• allow force=yes to affect apt upgrades
• fix for saving conditionals in variable names
• support for multiple host ranges in INI inventory like: db[01:10:3]node-[01:10]
• fixes/improvements to cron module
• add user_install=no option to gem module to install gems system wide

1.2.2 "Hear About It Later" (reprise) -- July 4, 2013

• Added a configuration file option [paramiko_connection] record_host_keys which allows the code that paramiko uses to update known_hosts to be disabled. This is done because paramiko can be very slow at doing this if you have a large number of hosts and some folks may not want this behavior. This can be toggled independently of host key checking and does not affect the ssh transport plugin. Use of the ssh transport plugin is preferred if you have ControlPersist capability, and Ansible by default in 1.2.1 and later will autodetect.

1.2.1 "Hear About It Later" -- July 4, 2013

• Connection default is now "smart", which discovers if the system openssh can support ControlPersist, and uses it if so, if not falls back to paramiko.
• Host key checking is on by default. Disable it if you like by adding host_key_checking=False in the [default] section of /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg or ~/ansible.cfg or by exporting ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=False
• Paramiko now records host keys it was in contact with host key checking is on. It is somewhat sluggish when doing this, so switch to the 'ssh' transport if this concerns you.

1.2 "Right Now" -- June 10, 2013

Core Features:

• capability to set 'all_errors_fatal: True' in a playbook to force any error to stop execution versus a whole group or serial block needing to fail usable, without breaking the ability to override in ansible
• ability to use variables from {{ }} syntax in mainline playbooks, new 'when' conditional, as detailed in documentation. Can disable old style replacements in ansible.cfg if so desired, but are still active by default.
• can set ansible_ssh_private_key_file as an inventory variable (similar to ansible_ssh_host, etc)
• 'when' statement can be affixed to task includes to auto-affix the conditional to each task therein
• cosmetic: "*****" banners in ansible-playbook output are now constant width
• --limit can now be given a filename (--limit @filename) to constrain a run to a host list on disk
• failed playbook runs will create a retry file in /var/tmp/ansible usable with --limit
• roles allow easy arrangement of reusable tasks/handlers/files/templates
• pre_tasks and post_tasks allow for separating tasks into blocks where handlers will fire around them automatically
• "meta: flush_handler" task capability added for when you really need to force handlers to run
• new --start-at-task option to ansible playbook allows starting at a specific task name in a long playbook
• added a log file for ansible/ansible-playbook, set 'log_path' in the configuration file or ANSIBLE_LOG_PATH in environment
• debug mode always outputs debug in playbooks, without needing to specify -v
• external inventory script added for Spacewalk / Red Hat Satellite servers
• It is now possible to feed JSON structures to --extra-vars. Pass in a JSON dictionary/hash to feed in complex data.
• group_vars/ and host_vars/ directories can now be kept alongside the playbook as well as inventory (or both!)
• more filters: ability to say {{ foo|success }} and {{ foo|failed }} and when: foo|success and when: foo|failed
• more filters: {{ path|basename }} and {{ path|dirname }}
• lookup plugins now use the basedir of the file they have included from, avoiding needs of ../../../ in places and increasing the ease at which things can be reorganized.

Modules added:

• cloud: rax: module for creating instances in the rackspace cloud (uses pyrax)
• packages: npm: node.js package management
• packages: pkgng: next-gen package manager for FreeBSD
• packages: redhat_subscription: manage Red Hat subscription usage
• packages: rhn_register: basic RHN registration
• packages: zypper (SuSE)
• database: postgresql_priv: manages postgresql priveledges
• networking: bigip_pool: load balancing with F5s
• networking: ec2_elb: add and remove machines from ec2 elastic load balancers
• notification: hipchat: send notification events to hipchat
• notification: flowdock: send messages to flowdock during playbook runs
• notification: campfire: send messages to campfire during playbook runs
• notification: mqtt: send messages to the Mosquitto message bus
• notification: irc: send messages to IRC channels
• notification: filesystem - a wrapper around mkfs
• notification: jabber: send jabber chat messages
• notification: osx_say: make OS X say things out loud
• openstack: keystone_user
• openstack: glance_image
• openstack: nova_compute
• openstack: nova_keypair
• openstack: quantum_floating_ip
• openstack: quantum_floating_ip_associate
• openstack: quantum_network
• openstack: quantum_router
• openstack: quantum_router_gateway
• openstack: quantum_router_interface
• openstack: quantum_subnet
• monitoring: newrelic_deployment: notifies newrelic of new deployments
• monitoring: airbrake_deployment - notify airbrake of new deployments
• monitoring: pingdom
• monitoring: pagerduty
• monitoring: monit
• utility: set_fact: sets a variable, which can be the result of a template evaluation

Modules removed

• vagrant -- can't be compatible with both versions at once, just run things though the vagrant provisioner in vagrant core

Bugfixes and Misc Changes:

• service module happier if only enabled=yes|no specified and no state
• mysql_db: use --password= instead of -p in dump/import so it doesn't go interactive if no pass set
• when using -c ssh and the ansible user is the current user, don't pass a -o to allow SSH config to be
• overwrite parameter added to the s3 module
• private_ip parameter added to the ec2 module
• $FILE and $PIPE now tolerate unicode
• various plugin loading operations have been made more efficient
• hostname now uses platform.node versus socket.gethostname to be more consistant with Unix 'hostname'
• fix for SELinux operations on Unicode path names
• inventory directory locations now ignore files with .ini extensions, making hybrid inventory easier
• copy module in check-mode now reports back correct changed status when used with force=no
• added avail. zone to ec2 module
• fixes to the hash variable merging logic if so enabled in the main settings file (default is to replace, not merge hashes)
• group_vars and host_vars files can now end in a .yaml or .yml extension, (previously required no extension, still favored)
• ec2vol module improvements
• if the user module is told to generate the ssh key, the key generated is now returned in the results
• misc fixes to the Riak module
• make template module slightly more efficient
• base64encode / decode filters are now available to templates
• libvirt module can now work with multiple different libvirt connecton URIs
• fix for postgresql password escaping
• unicode fix for shlex.split in some cases
• apt module upgrade logic improved
• URI module now can follow redirects
• yum module can now install off http URLs
• sudo password now defaults to ssh password if you ask for both and just hit enter on the second prompt
• validate feature on copy and template module, for example, running visudo prior to copying the file over
• network facts upgraded to return advanced configs (bonding, etc)
• region support added to ec2 module
• riak module gets a wait for ring option
• improved check mode support in the file module
• exception handling added to handle scenario when attempt to log to systemd journal fails
• fix for upstart handling when toggling the enablement and running bits at the same time
• when registering a task with a conditional attached, and the task is skipped by the conditional, the variable is still registered for the host, with the attribute skipped: True.
• delegate_to tasks can look up ansible_ssh_private_key_file variable from inventory correctly now
• s3 module takes a 'dest' parameter to change the destination for uploads
• apt module gets a cache_valid_time option to avoid redundant cache updates
• ec2 module better understands security groups
• fix for postgresql codec usage
• setup module now tolerant of OpenVZ interfaces
• check mode reporting improved for files and directories
• doc system now reports on module requirements
• group_by module can now also make use of globally scoped variables
• localhost and 127.0.0.1 are now fuzzy matched in inventory (are now more or less interchangeable)
• AIX improvements/fixes for users, groups, facts
• lineinfile now does atomic file replacements
• fix to not pass PasswordAuthentication=no in the config file unneccessarily for SSH connection type
• for for authorized_key on Debian Squeeze
• fixes for apt_repository module reporting changed incorrectly on certain repository types
• allow the virtualenv argument to the pip module to be a pathname
• service pattern argument now correctly read for BSD services
• fetch location can now be controlled more directly via the 'flat' parameter.
• added basename and dirname as Jinja2 filters available to all templates
• pip works better when sudoing from unpriveledged users
• fix for user creation with groups specification reporting 'changed' incorrectly in some cases
• fix for some unicode encoding errors in outputing some data in verbose mode
• improved FreeBSD, NetBSD and Solaris facts
• debug module always outputs data without having to specify -v
• fix for sysctl module creating new keys (must specify checks=none)
• NetBSD and OpenBSD support for the user and groups modules
• Add encrypted password support to password lookup

1.1 "Mean Street" -- 4/2/2013

Core Features

• added --check option for "dry run" mode
• added --diff option to show how templates or copied files change, or might change
• --list-tasks for the playbook will list the tasks without running them
• able to set the environment by setting "environment:" as a dictionary on any task (go proxy support!)
• added ansible_ssh_user and ansible_ssh_pass for per-host/group username and password
• jinja2 extensions can now be loaded from the config file
• support for complex arguments to modules (within reason)
• can specify ansible_connection=X to define the connection type in inventory variables
• a new chroot connection type
• module common code now has basic type checking (and casting) capability
• module common now supports a 'no_log' attribute to mark a field as not to be syslogged
• inventory can now point to a directory containing multiple scripts/hosts files, if using this, put group_vars/host_vars directories inside this directory
• added configurable crypt scheme for 'vars_prompt'
• password generating lookup plugin -- $PASSWORD(path/to/save/data/in)
• added --step option to ansible-playbook, works just like Linux interactive startup!

Modules Added:

• bzr (bazaar version control)
• cloudformation
• django-manage
• gem (ruby gems)
• homebrew
• lvg (logical volume groups)
• lvol (LVM logical volumes)
• macports
• mongodb_user
• netscaler
• okg
• openbsd_pkg
• rabbit_mq_plugin
• rabbit_mq_user
• rabbit_mq_vhost
• rabbit_mq_parameter
• rhn_channel
• s3 -- allows putting file contents in buckets for sharing over s3
• uri module -- can get/put/post/etc
• vagrant -- launching VMs with vagrant, this is different from existing vagrant plugin
• zfs

Bugfixes and Misc Changes:

• stderr shown when commands fail to parse
• uses yaml.safe_dump in filter plugins
• authentication Q&A no longer happens before --syntax-check, but after
• ability to get hostvars data for nodes not in the setup cache yet
• SSH timeout now correctly passed to native SSH connection plugin
• raise an error when multiple when_ statements are provided
• --list-hosts applies host limit selections better
• (internals) template engine specifications to use template_ds everywhere
• better error message when your host file can not be found
• end of line comments now work in the inventory file
• directory destinations now work better with remote md5 code
• lookup plugin macros like $FILE and $ENV now work without returning arrays in variable definitions/playbooks
• uses yaml.safe_load everywhere
• able to add EXAMPLES to documentation via EXAMPLES docstring, rather than just in main documentation YAML
• can set ANSIBLE_COW_SELECTION to pick other cowsay types (including random)
• to_nice_yaml and to_nice_json available as Jinja2 filters that indent and sort
• cowsay able to run out of macports (very important!)
• improved logging for fireball mode
• nicer error message when talking to an older system that needs a JSON module installed
• 'magic' variable 'inventory_basedir' now gives path to inventory file
• 'magic' variable 'vars' works like 'hostvars' but gives global scope variables, useful for debugging in templates mostly
• conditionals can be used on plugins like add_host
• developers: all callbacks now have access to a ".runner" and ".playbook", ".play", and ".task" object (use getattr, they may not always be set!)

Facts:

• block device facts for the setup module
• facts for AIX
• fact detection for OS type on Amazon Linux
• device fact gathering stability improvements
• ansible_os_family fact added
• user_id (remote user name)
• a whole series of current time information under the 'datetime' hash
• more OS X facts
• support for detecting Alpine Linux
• added facts for OpenBSD

Module Changes/Fixes:

• ansible module common code (and ONLY that) which is mixed in with modules, is now BSD licensed. App remains GPLv3.
• service code works better on platforms that mix upstart, systemd, and system-v
• service enablement idempotence fixes for systemd and upstart
• service status 4 is also 'not running'
• supervisorctl restart fix
• increased error handling for ec2 module
• can recursively set permissions on directories
• ec2: change to the way AMI tags are handled
• cron module can now also manipulate cron.d files
• virtualenv module can now inherit system site packages (or not)
• lineinfile module now has an insertbefore option
• NetBSD service module support
• fixes to sysctl module where item has multiple values
• AIX support for the user and group modules
• able to specify a different hg repo to pull from than the original set
• add_host module can set ports and other inventory variables
• add_host module can add modules to multiple groups (groups=a,b,c), groups now alias for groupname
• subnet ID can be set on EC2 module
• MySQL module password handling improvements
• added new virtualenv flags to pip and easy_install modules
• various improvements to lineinfile module, now accepts common arguments from file
• force= now replaces thirsty where used before, thirsty remains an alias
• setup module can take a 'filter=' parameter to just return a few facts (not used by playbooks)
• cron module works even if no crontab is present (for cron.d)
• security group ID settable on EC2 module
• misc fixes to sysctl module
• fix to apt module so packages not in cache are still removable
• charset fix to mail module
• postresql db module now does not try to create the 'PUBLIC' user
• SVN module now works correctly with self signed certs
• apt module now has an upgrade parameter (values=yes, no, or 'dist')
• nagios module gets new silence/unsilence commands
• ability to disable proxy usage in get_url (use_proxy=no)
• more OS X facts
• added a 'fail_on_missing' (default no) option to fetch
• added timeout to the uri module (default 30 seconds, adjustable)
• ec2 now has a 'wait' parameter to wait for the instance to be active, eliminates need for separate wait_for call.
• allow regex backreferences in lineinfile
• id attribute on ec2 module can be used to set idempotent-do-not-recreate launches
• icinga support for nagios module
• fix default logins when no my.conf for MySQL module
• option to create users with non-unique UIDs (user module)
• macports module can enable/disable packages
• quotes in my.cnf are stripped by the MySQL modules
• Solaris Service management added
• service module will attempt to auto-add unmanaged chkconfig services when needed
• service module supports systemd service unit files

Plugins:

• added 'with_random_choice' filter plugin
• fixed ~ expansion for fileglob
• with_nested allows for nested loops (see examples in examples/playbooks)

1.0 "Eruption" -- Feb 1 2013

New modules:

• new sysctl module
• new pacman module (Arch linux)
• new apt_key module
• hg module now in core
• new ec2_facts module
• added pkgin module for Joyent SmartOS

New config settings:

• sudo_exe parameter can be set in config to use sudo alternatives
• sudo_flags parameter can alter the flags used with sudo

New playbook/language features:

• added when_failed and when_changed
• task includes can now be of infinite depth
• when_set and when_unset can take more than one var (when_set: $a and $b and $c)
• added the with_sequence lookup plugin
• can override "connection:" on an indvidual task
• parameterized playbook includes can now define complex variables (not just all on one line)
• making inventory variables available for use in vars_files paths
• messages when skipping plays are now more clear
• --extra-vars now has maximum precedence (as intended)

Module fixes and new flags:

• ability to use raw module without python on remote system
• fix for service status checking on Ubuntu
• service module now responds to additional exit code for SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE
• fix for raw module with '-c local'
• various fixes to git module
• ec2 module now reports the public DNS name
• can pass executable= to the raw module to specify alternative shells
• fix for postgres module when user contains a "-"
• added additional template variables -- $template_fullpath and $template_run_date
• raise errors on invalid arguments used with a task include statement
• shell/command module takes a executable= parameter to specify a different shell than /bin/sh
• added return code and error output to the raw module
• added support for @reboot to the cron module
• misc fixes to the pip module
• nagios module can schedule downtime for all services on the host
• various subversion module improvements
• various mail module improvements
• SELinux fix for files created by authorized_key module
• "template override" ??
• get_url module can now send user/password authorization
• ec2 module can now deploy multiple simultaneous instances
• fix for apt_key modules stalling in some situations
• fix to enable Jinja2 {% include %} to work again in template
• ec2 module is now powered by Boto
• setup module can now detect if package manager is using pacman
• fix for yum module with enablerepo in use on EL 6

Core fixes and new behaviors:

• various fixes for variable resolution in playbooks
• fixes for handling of "~" in some paths
• various fixes to DWIM'ing of relative paths
• /bin/ansible now takes a --list-hosts just like ansible-playbook did
• various patterns can now take a regex vs a glob if they start with "~" (need docs on which!) - also /usr/bin/ansible
• allow intersecting host patterns by using "&" ("webservers:!debian:&datacenter1")
• handle tilde shell character for --private-key
• hash merging policy is now selectable in the config file, can choose to override or merge
• environment variables now available for setting all plugin paths (ANSIBLE_CALLBACK_PLUGINS, etc)
• added packaging file for macports (not upstreamed yet)
• hacking/test-module script now uses /usr/bin/env properly
• fixed error formatting for certain classes of playbook syntax errors
• fix for processing returns with large volumes of output

Inventory files/scripts:

• hostname patterns in the inventory file can now use alphabetic ranges
• whitespace is now allowed around group variables in the inventory file
• inventory scripts can now define groups of groups and group vars (need example for docs?)

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

0.0.2 and 0.0.1

• Initial stages of project