Status of ansible-core-2.16 and ansible-9 in Factory
Hello, I noticed that the *ansible-core-2.16* and *ansible-9* packages (link <https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/systemsmanagement:ansible/ansible-core-2.16>) appears to have been removed from Factory. We have been using these packages and would like to understand the reasoning behind this change and the future maintenance plans for *ansible-core-2.16* and *ansible-9*. I also see that these packages still exist in the systemsmanagement:ansible project on OBS, so we could potentially branch them if needed. However, before proceeding, I wanted to check whether there are plans to retire these packages as well. Any insights would be helpful in planning for continued usage. Thanks, Harsh
Am 28.02.25 um 08:12 schrieb Harshvardhan Sharma via openSUSE Factory:
factory is not about keeping around obsoleted ancient stuff, it is a rolling release distribution and thus has moved on to ansible-core 2.18 and ansible 11 Probably for those who really cannot update that quickly, there are also ansible-core-2.17 and ansible-10 packages around. (I'm actually surprised that differnt versions are available on Factory at all). Best regards, seife -- Stefan Seyfried "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -- Richard Feynman
On Fri, 2025-02-28 at 14:30 +0100, Stefan Seyfried via openSUSE Factory wrote:
... which can't be used to administer target systems with python 3.6. Which means all of SLE/Leap 15, basically. (For 15.6 and newer it might be possible to set ansibly_python_interpreter to python311, haven't tried - but for users of ansible that implies a chicken-and-egg problem, as python311 isn't necessarily installed in the first place).
TW has 4 versions of clang and 6 versions of python. So why not multiple versions of ansible? Martin
Hi Martin, On 28.02.25 16:57 Martin Wilck via openSUSE Factory wrote:
That was the reason ansible-core-2.16 was introduced into Factory, to ease the transition. But it always had a limited lifetime. Now that it does no longer get updates it might no longer be safe to use. And yes, installing python3.11 and setting the ansible_python_interpreter is exactly the way to go. You can even do that with Ansible. Here is an example from one of my vagrant setups, using Leap 15.6 and bootstrapping python3.11:
https://github.com/johanneskastl/nfs-ganesha_on_k3s_using_vagrant_libvirt_an...
Kind Regards, Johannes
On Sun, 2025-03-02 at 09:19 +0100, Johannes Kastl wrote:
I know, thanks again for that.
But it always had a limited lifetime. Now that it" does no longer get updates it might no longer be safe to use.
According to the support matrix [1] the EOL of 2.16 is May 2025, although it hasn't been receiving security updates since November 2024. I don't fully understand the logic behind that. Ansible 2.16 was special in general, because it's "long term release" [2], and for SUSE in particular, because it was the last release to support python 3.6. While you're of course free and welcome to do it, I don't see a strong case for maintaining ansible-core 2.17 in Factory.
Thanks a lot, this is helpful. It isn't perfect for SLE because it won't work for SLE <= 15.4 and it requires the python3 module to be enabled, but I suppose we can handle the remaining cases with ansible- navigator. Thanks Martin [1] https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/reference_appendices/release_and_main... [2] https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/release_and_mai...
Hi Martin, On 04.03.25 16:11 Martin Wilck via openSUSE Factory wrote:
Me neither, but I decided to drop it from Factory due to the missing security updates...
In the long run I plan to only package on set of ansible+ansible-core in Factory. I think there were some larger changes under the hood which made me submit the 2.17 package. But using Ansible daily I can confirm that (at least for me...) the 2.18 version works properly and without issues.
Glad I could help. Kind Regards, Johannes
Dear Harsh, sorry for the late reply, was buried in work... On 28.02.25 08:12 Harshvardhan Sharma via openSUSE Factory wrote:
That is basically it, there is no future for these releases. They are no longer supported upstream and thus were dropped. The only reason they got introduced was that 2.17.x required having a python version >= 3.6 on the target systems, i.e. the machines you manage with Ansible, not the one you run the "ansible-playbook" command on. As 15.6 got the shiny new 3.11 python stack, those machines can now be managed with Ansible > 2.16.
I have not removed them from the devel project, but as they are not getting any updates anymore, I strongly advise against using them for anything anymore.
Any insights would be helpful in planning for continued usage.
TL;DR: Use the ansible and ansible-core packages, they will always get the latest released version (but will get minor-version-bumps due to that). Kind Regards, Johannes
Am 28.02.25 um 08:12 schrieb Harshvardhan Sharma via openSUSE Factory:
factory is not about keeping around obsoleted ancient stuff, it is a rolling release distribution and thus has moved on to ansible-core 2.18 and ansible 11 Probably for those who really cannot update that quickly, there are also ansible-core-2.17 and ansible-10 packages around. (I'm actually surprised that differnt versions are available on Factory at all). Best regards, seife -- Stefan Seyfried "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." -- Richard Feynman
On Fri, 2025-02-28 at 14:30 +0100, Stefan Seyfried via openSUSE Factory wrote:
... which can't be used to administer target systems with python 3.6. Which means all of SLE/Leap 15, basically. (For 15.6 and newer it might be possible to set ansibly_python_interpreter to python311, haven't tried - but for users of ansible that implies a chicken-and-egg problem, as python311 isn't necessarily installed in the first place).
TW has 4 versions of clang and 6 versions of python. So why not multiple versions of ansible? Martin
Hi Martin, On 28.02.25 16:57 Martin Wilck via openSUSE Factory wrote:
That was the reason ansible-core-2.16 was introduced into Factory, to ease the transition. But it always had a limited lifetime. Now that it does no longer get updates it might no longer be safe to use. And yes, installing python3.11 and setting the ansible_python_interpreter is exactly the way to go. You can even do that with Ansible. Here is an example from one of my vagrant setups, using Leap 15.6 and bootstrapping python3.11:
https://github.com/johanneskastl/nfs-ganesha_on_k3s_using_vagrant_libvirt_an...
Kind Regards, Johannes
On Sun, 2025-03-02 at 09:19 +0100, Johannes Kastl wrote:
I know, thanks again for that.
But it always had a limited lifetime. Now that it" does no longer get updates it might no longer be safe to use.
According to the support matrix [1] the EOL of 2.16 is May 2025, although it hasn't been receiving security updates since November 2024. I don't fully understand the logic behind that. Ansible 2.16 was special in general, because it's "long term release" [2], and for SUSE in particular, because it was the last release to support python 3.6. While you're of course free and welcome to do it, I don't see a strong case for maintaining ansible-core 2.17 in Factory.
Thanks a lot, this is helpful. It isn't perfect for SLE because it won't work for SLE <= 15.4 and it requires the python3 module to be enabled, but I suppose we can handle the remaining cases with ansible- navigator. Thanks Martin [1] https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/reference_appendices/release_and_main... [2] https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/release_and_mai...
Hi Martin, On 04.03.25 16:11 Martin Wilck via openSUSE Factory wrote:
Me neither, but I decided to drop it from Factory due to the missing security updates...
In the long run I plan to only package on set of ansible+ansible-core in Factory. I think there were some larger changes under the hood which made me submit the 2.17 package. But using Ansible daily I can confirm that (at least for me...) the 2.18 version works properly and without issues.
Glad I could help. Kind Regards, Johannes
Dear Harsh, sorry for the late reply, was buried in work... On 28.02.25 08:12 Harshvardhan Sharma via openSUSE Factory wrote:
That is basically it, there is no future for these releases. They are no longer supported upstream and thus were dropped. The only reason they got introduced was that 2.17.x required having a python version >= 3.6 on the target systems, i.e. the machines you manage with Ansible, not the one you run the "ansible-playbook" command on. As 15.6 got the shiny new 3.11 python stack, those machines can now be managed with Ansible > 2.16.
I have not removed them from the devel project, but as they are not getting any updates anymore, I strongly advise against using them for anything anymore.
Any insights would be helpful in planning for continued usage.
TL;DR: Use the ansible and ansible-core packages, they will always get the latest released version (but will get minor-version-bumps due to that). Kind Regards, Johannes
participants (4)
-
Harshvardhan Sharma -
Johannes Kastl -
Martin Wilck -
Stefan Seyfried