Ansible 4.0.0 alpha4 released

[Toshio Kuratomi]

Hi all,

We're happy to announce that the Ansible-4.0.0 alpha4 package is now
available! This update is based on the Ansible-core-2.11.x package
which is a major update from the Ansible-3 package (Ansible-3 was
based on Ansible-base-2.10.x). There may be backwards
incompatibilities in the core playbook language. Please see the
porting guide for details.

This is an alpha release. Therefore, there may be more backwards
incompatible changes and new features added before Ansible-4.0.0 final
is released. We're making this release now so that people can test
for incompatibilities with the upcoming ansible-core-2.11.0 package
while there is still a chance to get bugs fixed before
ansible-core-2.11.0 final is released.


How to get it
-------------

Due to a limitation in pip, if you are upgrading from Ansible 2.9 (or
earlier), you need to uninstall ansible before installing the 3.0.0
version. It is also recommended to uninstall ansible-base before
upgrading:

```
$ pip uninstall ansible ansible-base
$ pip install ansible==4.0.0a3 --user
```

The tar.gz of the release can be found here:

* Ansible 4.0.0a4:
https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/ansible/ansible-4.0.0a4.tar.gz
SHA256: 816cf7bf6a137326f32dd354dfc359d87b97ce4dfc24e4dad6b21fc560589bd6

What's new in Ansible 4.0.0
---------------------------

* This version of Ansible is based on ansible-core-2.11.x which is a
new major update of the ansible-core package. It may contain
backwards incompatible changes to the playbook language and command
line programs.
* We maintain a porting guide which will continue to be updated as
we move closer to the ansible-4.0.0 final release:
* https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_4.html

* We've added a way to get the version of the ansible package that is
installed programmatically::

$ python -c 'from ansible_collections.ansible_release import
ansible_version; print(ansible_version)'
4.0.0a4

* Collections which have opted into being a part of the Ansible-4.0.0
unified changelog will have an entry on this page:
* https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/4/CHANGELOG-v4.rst

* For collections which have not opted into the unified changelog,
consult the list of included collections in the link below and check
their entry on https://galaxy.ansible.com for information about their
changes.
* https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/4/ansible-4.0.0a4.deps

* You can find more information for those on
https://galaxy.ansible.com/. For instance, the community.crypto
collection listed in the ansible deps file has a galaxy page at
https://galaxy.ansible.com/community/crypto/

* Changelog for ansible-core-2.11 which this release of ansible
installs: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/stable-2.11/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.11.rst


What's the schedule for new Ansible releases after 4.0.0a4?
-----------------------------------------------------------

* This is the last scheduled Ansible-4.0.0 alpha release. Unless the
ansible-core-2.11.0 release slips, the next Ansible pre-release will
be Ansible-4.0.0 beta1 on April 27th.
* Please see the ansible roadmap for the full release schedule for
ansible-4.0.0: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/roadmap/COLLECTIONS_4.html
* Please see the ansible-core roadmap for the release schedule for
ansible-core-2.11.0:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/devel/roadmap/ROADMAP_2_11.html

* Once ansible-4.0.0 is released, new minor releases will occur
approximately every three weeks (ansible-4.1.0, ansible-4.2.0, etc).
They will contain bugfixes and new features but no backwards
incompatibilities.

* At the moment, the plan is for updates to ansible-3 to stop once
ansible-4.0.0 final is released.
* We've been putting together a document on issues that would need
to be addressed if someone would like to volunteer to create long term
updates to Ansible-3: https://hackmd.io/plQlGzcFRFGLnPXIeg3cwQ


Porting Help
-------------

A unified porting guide for collections which have opted-in is being
worked on. For now, you can find it in this pull request:
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_4.html

-Toshio