Ansible Changes By Release

1.4 "Could This Be Magic" - Release pending!

Highlighted new features:

Added do-until feature, which can be used to retry a failed task a specified number of times with a delay in-between the retries.
(docs pending) Added failed_when option for tasks, which can be used to specify logical statements that make it easier to determine when a task has failed, or to make it easier to ignore certain non-zero return codes for some commands.
Added the "subelement" lookup plugin, which allows iteration of the keys of a dictionary or items in a list.
Added the capability to use either paramiko or ssh for the inital setup connection of an accelerated playbook.
(docs pending) Swap the active user on a task in the middle of a play with the 'remote_user' parameter.
Automatically provide advice on common parser errors users encounter.

New modules:

cloud:ec2_eip -- manage AWS elastic IPs
cloud:rax_clb -- manage Rackspace cloud load balancers
system: firewalld -- manage the firewalld configuration
system: host -- manage /etc/hosts file entries
system: modprobe -- manage kernel modules on systems that support modprobe/rmmod
system: open_iscsi -- manage targets on an initiator using open-iscsi

Misc changes:

(docs pending) New features for accelerate mode: configurable timeouts and a keepalives for long running tasks.
Added a delimiter field to the assemble module.
Added ansible_env to the list of facts returned by the setup module.
Added state=touch to the file module, which functions similarly to the command-line version of touch.
Added a -vvvv level, which will show SSH client debugging information in the event of a failure.
Includes now support the more standard syntax, similar to that of role includes and dependencies. It is no longer necessary to specify a special "vars" field for the variables passed to the include.
Changed the user: parameter on plays to remote_user: to prevent confusion with the module of the same name. Still backwards compatible on play parameters.
Added parameter to allow the fetch module to skip the md5 validation step ('validate_md5=false'). This is usefull when fetching files that are actively being written to, such as live log files.
Inventory hosts are used in the order they appear in the inventory.
in hosts: foo[2-5] type syntax, the iterators now are zero indexed and the last index is non-inclusive, to match Python standards.

1.3.2 "Top of the World" (reprise) - September 19th, 2013

Multiple accelerate mode fixes: Make packet reception less greedy, so multiple frames of data are not consumed by one call. Adding two timeout values (one for connection and one for data reception timeout). Added keepalive packets, so async mode is no longer required for long-running tasks. Modified accelerate daemon to use the verbose logging level of the ansible command that started it. Fixed bug where accelerate would not work in check-mode. 1.3.2 "Top of the World" (reprise) - September 19th, 2013

The ControlPath variable for ssh connections is now configurable in the ansible.cfg (and via the environment variable ANSIBLE_SSH_CONTROL_PATH). Added a -vvvv level, which will show SSH client debugging information in the event of a failure. Fixed bug in apt_repository module where the repository cache was not being updated. Fixed bug where "too many open files" errors would be encountered due to pseudo TTY's not being closed properly. 1.3.1 "Top of the World" (reprise) - September 16th, 2013

Fixing a bug in accelerate mode whereby the gather_facts step would always be run via sudo regardless of the play settings.

1.3 "Top of the World" - September 13th, 2013

Highlighted new features:

accelerated mode: An enhanced fireball mode that requires zero bootstrapping and fewer requirements plus adds capabilities like sudo commands.
role defaults: Allows roles to define a set of variables at the lowest priority. These variables can be overridden by any other variable.
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.
added the ability to make undefined template variables raise errors (see ansible.cfg)
(DOCS PENDING) sudo: True/False and sudo_user: True/False can be set at include and role level
added changed_when: (expression) which allows overriding whether a result is changed or not and can work with registered expressions
--extra-vars can now take a file as input, e.g., "-e @filename" and can also be formatted as YAML
external inventory scripts may now return host variables in one pass, which allows them to be much more efficient for large numbers of hosts
if --forks exceeds the numbers of hosts, it will be automatically reduced. Set forks to 0 and you get "as many forks as I have hosts" out of the box.
enabled error_on_undefined_vars by default, which will make errors in playbooks more obvious
role dependencies -- one role can now pull in another, with parameters of its own.
added the ability to have tasks execute even during a check run (always_run).
added the ability to set the maximum failure percentage for a group of hosts.

New modules:

notifications: datadog_event -- send data to datadog
cloud: digital_ocean -- module for DigitalOcean provisioning that also includes inventory support
cloud: rds -- Amazon Relational Database Service
cloud: linode -- modules for Linode provisioning that also includes inventory support
cloud: route53 -- manage Amazon DNS entries
cloud: ec2_ami -- manages (and creates!) ec2 AMIs
database: mysql_replication -- manages mysql replication settings for masters/slaves
database: mysql_variables -- manages mysql runtime variables
database: redis -- manages redis databases (slave mode and flushing data)
net_infrastructure: arista_interface
net_infrastructure: arista_lag
net_infrastructure: arista_l2interface
net_infrastructure: arista_vlan
system: stat -- reports on stat(istics) of remote files, for use with 'register'
web_infrastructure: htpasswd -- manipulate htpasswd files
packaging: rpm_key -- adds or removes RPM signing keys
packaging: apt_repository -- rewritten to remove dependencies
monitoring: boundary_meter -- adds or removes boundary.com meters
net_infrastructure: dnsmadeeasy - manipulate DNS Made Easy records
files: xattr -- manages extended attributes on files

Misc changes:

return 3 when there are hosts that were unreachable during a run
the yum module now supports wildcard values for the enablerepo argument
added an inventory script to pull host information from Zabbix
async mode no longer allows with_* lookup plugins due to incompatibilities
Added OpenRC support (Gentoo) to the service module
ansible_ssh_user value is available to templates
added placement_group parameter to ec2 module
new sha256sum parameter added to get_url module for checksum 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 (at 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 on Solaris
sudo_user is now expanded later, allowing it to be set at inventory scope
mongodb_user module changed to also support MongoDB 2.2
new state=hard option added 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 includes fixes for the error path, and the 'wait_for' parameter was removed
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 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.yml
some help cleanup to command line flags on scripts
force option reinstated for file module so it can create symlinks to non-existent 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 added to supervisorctl module
only add non unique parameter on group creation when required
allow rabbitmq_plugin to specify a non-standard RabbitMQ path
authentication 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_flattened"
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, e.g., 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
added raw=yes to allow copying without python on remote machines
added with_indexed_items lookup plugin
Linode inventory plugin now significantly faster
added recurse=yes parameter to pacman module for package removal
apt_key module can now target specific keyrings (keyring=filename)
ec2 module change reporting improved
hg module now expands user paths (~)
SSH connection type known host checking now can process hashed known_host files
lvg module now checks for executables in more correct locations
copy module now works correctly with sudo_user
region parameter added to ec2_elb module
better default XMPP module message types
fixed conditional tests against raw booleans
mysql module grant removal is now smarter
apt-remove is now forced to be non-interactive
support ; comments in INI file module
fixes to callbacks WRT async output (fire and forget tasks now trigger callbacks!)
folder support for s3 module
added new example inventory plugin for Red Hat OpenShift
and other misc. bugfixes

1.2.3 "Hear About It Later" (reprise) -- Aug 21, 2013

Local security fixes for predictable file locations for ControlPersist and retry file paths on shared machines on operating systems without kernel symlink/hardlink protections.

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_dir' 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

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