ansible/CHANGELOG.md

39 KiB

Ansible Changes By Release

1.2 "Right Now" -- release pending

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_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

Modules added:

  • rax: module for creating instances in the rackspace cloud (uses pyrax)
  • npm: node.js package management
  • postgresql_priv: manages postgresql priveledges
  • set_fact: sets a variable, which can be the result of a template evaluation
  • hipchat: send notification events to hipchat
  • ec2_elb: add and remove machines from ec2 elastic load balancers
  • flowdock: send messages to flowdock during playbook runs
  • pkgng: next-gen package manager for FreeBSD
  • bigip_pool: load balancing with F5s
  • newrelic_deployment: notifies newrelic of new deployments
  • campfire: send messages to campfire during playbook runs
  • mqtt: send messages to the Mosquitto message bus
  • irc: send messages to IRC channels
  • filesystem - a wrapper around mkfs
  • jabber: send jabber chat messages

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

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