The Ansible Development Cycle

Ansible developers (including community contributors) add new features, fix bugs, and update code in many different repositories. The ansible/ansible repository contains the code for basic features and functions, such as copying module code to managed nodes. This code is also known as ansible-core. Other repositories contain plugins and modules that enable Ansible to execute specific tasks, like adding a user to a particular database or configuring a particular network device. These repositories contain the source code for collections.

Development on ansible-core occurs on two levels. At the macro level, the ansible-core developers and maintainers plan releases and track progress with roadmaps and projects. At the micro level, each PR has its own lifecycle.

Development on collections also occurs at the macro and micro levels. Each collection has its own macro development cycle. For more information on the collections development cycle, see Contributing to Ansible-maintained Collections. The micro-level lifecycle of a PR is similar in collections and in ansible-core.

Macro development: ansible-core roadmaps, releases, and projects

If you want to follow the conversation about what features will be added to ansible-core for upcoming releases and what bugs are being fixed, you can watch these resources:

Micro development: the lifecycle of a PR

If you want to contribute a feature or fix a bug in ansible-core or in a collection, you must open a pull request (“PR” for short). GitHub provides a great overview of how the pull request process works in general. The ultimate goal of any pull request is to get merged and become part of a collection or ansible-core. Here’s an overview of the PR lifecycle:

  • Contributor opens a PR (always against the devel branch)

  • ansible-core uses Ansibot to triage the PR. Some collection repositories use Ansibullbot to triage the PR. For most collections, this is done manually or by other means.

  • Azure Pipelines runs the test suite

  • Developers, maintainers, community review the PR

  • Contributor addresses any feedback from reviewers

  • Developers, maintainers, community re-review

  • PR merged or closed

  • PR backported to one or more stable-X.Y branches (optional, bugfixes only)

Making your PR merge-worthy

We do not merge every PR. Here are some tips for making your PR useful, attractive, and merge-worthy.

Creating changelog fragments

Changelogs help users and developers keep up with changes to ansible-core and Ansible collections. Ansible and many collections build changelogs for each release from fragments. For ansible-core and collections using this model, you must add a changelog fragment to any PR that changes functionality or fixes a bug.

You do not need a changelog fragment for PRs that:

  • add new modules and plugins, because Ansible tooling does that automatically;

  • contain only documentation changes.

Note

Some collections require a changelog fragment for every pull request. They use the trivial: section for entries mentioned above that will be skipped when building a release changelog.

More precisely:

  • Every bugfix PR must have a changelog fragment. The only exception are fixes to a change that has not yet been included in a release.

  • Every feature PR must have a changelog fragment.

  • New modules and plugins (including jinja2 filter and test plugins) must have version_added entries set correctly in their documentation, and do not need a changelog fragment. The tooling detects new modules and plugins by their version_added values and announces them in the next release’s changelog automatically.

We build short summary changelogs for minor releases as well as for major releases. If you backport a bugfix, include a changelog fragment with the backport PR.

Creating a changelog fragment

A basic changelog fragment is a .yaml or .yml file placed in the changelogs/fragments/ directory. Each file contains a yaml dict with keys like bugfixes or major_changes followed by a list of changelog entries of bugfixes or features. Each changelog entry is rst embedded inside of the yaml file which means that certain constructs would need to be escaped so they can be interpreted by rst and not by yaml (or escaped for both yaml and rst if you prefer). Each PR must use a new fragment file rather than adding to an existing one, so we can trace the change back to the PR that introduced it.

PRs which add a new module or plugin do not necessarily need a changelog fragment. See the previous section Creating changelog fragments. Also see the next section Changelog fragment entry format for the precise format changelog fragments should have.

To create a changelog entry, create a new file with a unique name in the changelogs/fragments/ directory of the corresponding repository. The file name should include the PR number and a description of the change. It must end with the file extension .yaml or .yml. For example: 40696-user-backup-shadow-file.yaml

A single changelog fragment may contain multiple sections but most will only contain one section. The toplevel keys (bugfixes, major_changes, and so on) are defined in the config file for our release note tool. Here are the valid sections and a description of each:

breaking_changes

MUST include changes that break existing playbooks or roles. This includes any change to existing behavior that forces users to update tasks. Breaking changes means the user MUST make a change when they update. Breaking changes MUST only happen in a major release of the collection. Write in present tense and clearly describe the new behavior that the end user must now follow. Displayed in both the changelogs and the Porting Guides.

breaking_changes:
  - ansible-test - automatic installation of requirements for cloud test plugins no longer occurs. The affected test plugins are ``aws``, ``azure``, ``cs``, ``hcloud``, ``nios``, ``opennebula``, ``openshift`` and ``vcenter``. Collections should instead use one of the supported integration test requirements files, such as the ``tests/integration/requirements.txt`` file (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/75605).
major_changes

Major changes to ansible-core or a collection. SHOULD NOT include individual module or plugin changes. MUST include non-breaking changes that impact all or most of a collection (for example, updates to support a new SDK version across the collection). Major changes mean the user can CHOOSE to make a change when they update but do not have to. Could be used to announce an important upcoming EOL or breaking change in a future release. (ideally 6 months in advance, if known. See this example). Write in present tense and describe what is new. Optionally, include a ‘Previously…” sentence to help the user identify where old behavior should now change. Displayed in both the changelogs and the Porting Guides.

major_changes:
  - ansible-test - all cloud plugins which use containers can now be used with all POSIX and Windows hosts. Previously the plugins did not work with Windows at all, and support for hosts created with the ``--remote`` option was inconsistent (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/74216).
minor_changes

Minor changes to ansible-core, modules, or plugins. This includes new parameters added to modules, or non-breaking behavior changes to existing parameters, such as adding additional values to choices[]. Minor changes are enhancements, not bug fixes. Write in present tense.

minor_changes:
  - lineinfile - add warning when using an empty regexp (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/29443).
deprecated_features

Features that have been deprecated and are scheduled for removal in a future release. Use past tense and include an alternative, where available for what is being deprecated.. Displayed in both the changelogs and the Porting Guides.

deprecated_features:
  - include action - is deprecated in favor of ``include_tasks``, ``import_tasks`` and ``import_playbook`` (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/71262).
removed_features

Features that were previously deprecated and are now removed. Use past tense and include an alternative, where available for what is being deprecated. Displayed in both the changelogs and the Porting Guides.

removed_features:
  - _get_item() alias - removed from callback plugin base class which had been deprecated in favor of ``_get_item_label()`` (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/70233).
security_fixes

Fixes that address CVEs or resolve security concerns. MUST use security_fixes for any CVEs. Use present tense. Include links to CVE information.

security_fixes:
  - set_options -do not include params in exception when a call to ``set_options`` fails. Additionally, block the exception that is returned from being displayed to stdout. (CVE-2021-3620).
bugfixes

Fixes that resolve issues. SHOULD not be used for minor enhancements (use minor_change instead). Use past tense to describe the problem and present tense to describe the fix.

bugfixes:
  - ansible_play_batch - variable included unreachable hosts. Fix now saves unreachable hosts between plays by adding them to the PlayIterator's ``_play._removed_hosts`` (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/66945).
known_issues

Known issues that are currently not fixed or will not be fixed. Use present tense and where available, use imperative tense for a workaround.

known_issues:
  - ansible-test - tab completion anywhere other than the end of the command with the new composite options provides incorrect results (https://github.com/kislyuk/argcomplete/issues/351).

Each changelog entry must contain a link to its issue between parentheses at the end. If there is no corresponding issue, the entry must contain a link to the PR itself.

Most changelog entries are bugfixes or minor_changes. The changelog tool also supports trivial, which are not listed in the actual changelog output but are used by collections repositories that require a changelog fragment for each PR.

Changelog fragment entry format

When writing a changelog entry, use the following format:

- scope - description starting with a lowercase letter and ending with a period at the very end. Multiple sentences are allowed (https://github.com/reference/to/an/issue or, if there is no issue, reference to a pull request itself).

The scope is usually a module or plugin name or group of modules or plugins, for example, lookup plugins. While module names can (and should) be mentioned directly (foo_module), plugin names should always be followed by the type (foo inventory plugin).

For changes that are not really scoped (for example, which affect a whole collection), use the following format:

- Description starting with an uppercase letter and ending with a dot at the very end. Multiple sentences are allowed (https://github.com/reference/to/an/issue or, if there is no issue, reference to a pull request itself).

Here are some examples:

bugfixes:
  - apt_repository - fix crash caused by ``cache.update()`` raising an ``IOError``
    due to a timeout in ``apt update`` (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/51995).

minor_changes:
  - lineinfile - add warning when using an empty regexp (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/29443).

bugfixes:
  - copy - the module was attempting to change the mode of files for
    remote_src=True even if mode was not set as a parameter.  This failed on
    filesystems which do not have permission bits (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/29444).

You can find more example changelog fragments in the changelog directory for the 2.16 release.

After you have written the changelog fragment for your PR, commit the file and include it with the pull request.

Changelog fragment entry format for new playbooks

While new modules, plugins, and roles are mentioned automatically in the generated changelog, playbooks are not. To make sure they are mentioned, a changelog fragment in a specific format is needed:

# A new playbook:
add object.playbook:
  - # This should be the short (non-FQCN) name of the playbook.
    name: wipe_server
    # The description should be in the same format as short_description for
    # plugins and modules: it should start with an upper-case letter and
    # not have a period at the end.
    description: Wipes a server

Backporting merged PRs in ansible-core

All ansible-core PRs must be merged to the devel branch first. After a pull request has been accepted and merged to the devel branch, the following instructions will help you create a pull request to backport the change to a previous stable branch.

We do not backport features.

Note

These instructions assume that:

  • stable-2.16 is the targeted release branch for the backport

  • https://github.com/ansible/ansible.git is configured as a git remote named upstream. If you do not use a git remote named upstream, adjust the instructions accordingly.

  • https://github.com/<yourgithubaccount>/ansible.git is configured as a git remote named origin. If you do not use a git remote named origin, adjust the instructions accordingly.

  1. Prepare your devel, stable, and feature branches:

git fetch upstream
git checkout -b backport/2.16/[PR_NUMBER_FROM_DEVEL] upstream/stable-2.16

  1. Cherry pick the relevant commit SHA from the devel branch into your feature branch, handling merge conflicts as necessary:

git cherry-pick -x [SHA_FROM_DEVEL]

  1. Add a changelog fragment for the change, and commit it.

  2. Push your feature branch to your fork on GitHub:

git push origin backport/2.16/[PR_NUMBER_FROM_DEVEL]

  1. Submit the pull request for backport/2.16/[PR_NUMBER_FROM_DEVEL] against the stable-2.16 branch

  2. The Release Manager will decide whether to merge the backport PR before the next minor release. There isn’t any need to follow up. Just ensure that the automated tests (CI) are green.

Note

The branch name backport/2.16/[PR_NUMBER_FROM_DEVEL] is somewhat arbitrary but conveys meaning about the purpose of the branch. This branch name format is not required, but it can be helpful, especially when making multiple backport PRs for multiple stable branches.

Note

If you prefer, you can use CPython’s cherry-picker tool (pip install --user 'cherry-picker >= 1.3.2') to backport commits from devel to stable branches in Ansible. Take a look at the cherry-picker documentation for details on installing, configuring, and using it.