Ansible-4.0.0 alpha1 released!

[Toshio Kuratomi]

---
tags: ansible-releng, template, email
title: Major release announcement
---

Hi all,

We're happy to announce that the ansible-4.0.0 alpha1 package is now
available! This update is based on the ansible-base-2.11.x package
which is a major update from the ansible-3.x package (which was based
on ansible-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 who want to
test that the upcoming ansible-core-2.11.0 package doesn't break
things 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==4.0.0a1 --user
```

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

* Ansible 4.0.0a1:
https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/a/ansible/ansible-4.0.0a1.tar.gz
SHA256: 1facc27c49e8872d532fcb764c5f6816d80282065795377f807c50fe2435a7e4

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.
* A porting guide will be available shortly which will aid in
migrating to the new version:
* https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/73930

* 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-4.0.0a1.deps

* You can find more information for those on
https://galaxy.ansible.com/. For instance, the community.crypto
collection listed in the ansible-4.0.0a1.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 4.0.0a1?
-----------------------------------------------------------

* This release is one week late so there will be an ansible-4.0.0
alpha2 release next week. Future alpha releases will occur biweekly
until ansible-core-2.11.0 final is released.
* 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. They will contain bugfixes and new
features but no backwards incompatibilities.

* There is an effort to make maintenance releases of the older
community supported releases of ansible (ansible-2.10 at the moment
and ansible-3.x after ansible-4.0.0 is released). This is a work in
progress and the details of what you can expect in the releases is
still being worked out. If you would like to help out with this
effort, please talk to dmsimard in the #ansible-community channel on
irc.freenode.net


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://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/73930

-Toshio Kuratomi

P.S. Many thanks to felixfontein for doing most of the work to update
the build scripts to handle the new ansible-core package!