Release announcement : Ansible Community Package 9.0.0a2 (Pre Release)

[Anwesha Das]

Hello everyone,

We're happy to announce the Alpha release of Ansible 9.0.0a2!

This pre-release version contains the latest version of ansible-core
2.16 and includes a curated set of Ansible collections that provides a
vast number of modules and plugins.

ansible-core is a required dependency, not contained within the
ansible packages.

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

This release is available on PyPI and can be installed with pip:

`$ python3 -m pip install ansible==9.0.0a2 --user`

The source and the wheel for this release can be found here:

Release tarball:

https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/52/a5/40ee791afdd11d3ff9d208476f22cfacb2cceebcb3d315886e067d7f2b66/ansible-9.0.0a2.tar.gz

SHA256:

467b0ff0b6004d8e6f0980f8b60eb23c2641620596b1fb8bac1f67b645584857

Wheel package:

https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/19/3a/b40603905d5680d706588a3859ecd44be5107fa46a6066fa76a49aef0394/ansible-9.0.0a2-py3-none-any.whl

SHA256:

b4a0f99566c1acb72aacbda288622fd5716ae1138eca8528b54e2dcff75f11d0

Some important details
-------------------------------

Python wheels are available for both Ansible 9.0.0a2 and ansible-core 2.16.

In addition, Ansible 9 no longer installs some unnecessary files from
the included Ansible collections such as tests or hidden files and
directories. This further improves installation performance and
reduces the size on disk. These files are still available in the
source tarball if needed.

Collections which have opted-in to being a part of the Ansible 9
unified changelog will have an entry on this page:

For collections which have not opted-in to the unified changelog, you
may find more information on
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections or the collection
source repository. For example, the community.crypto collection is
available at https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/crypto/index.html
and you can find a link to the source repository under the
"Repository(Sources)" button.

The changelog for ansible-core 2.16 installed by this release of
Ansible 9 can be found here:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.16.0b1/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.16.rst


What's the schedule for new Ansible releases after 9.0.0a2?
---------------------------------------------------------

The next release roadmap can be found at
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/roadmap/ansible_roadmap_index.html

Subscribe to the Bullhorn for all future release dates, announcements,
and Ansible contributor community news.

Visit this link to subscribe: https://bit.ly/subscribe-bullhorn

You can find all past Bullhorn issues on the official wiki page:

https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/News#the-bullhorn


Join the new Ansible Community Forum to follow along and participate
in all the discussions and release related discussions and
announcements. Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and concerns
there.

Register here to join the Ansible Forum:

https://forum.ansible.com

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

A unified porting guide for collections that have opted-in is available here:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_9.html


Getting collection updates from Ansible 9 with older releases of ansible-core
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ansible 9 includes ansible-core 2.16 Based on your requirements, you
can get collection updates as they ship in the Ansible "batteries
included" package while continuing to use older versions of
ansible-core.

An ansible-galaxy requirements file based on the collections from
Ansible 9 has been made available for this use case:

https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/9/galaxy-requirements.yaml

After you download the requirements file, the collections can be
installed by running this command:

"ansible-galaxy collection install -r galaxy-requirements.yaml"

On behalf of the Ansible community, thank you and happy automating!

Cheers
Ansible Community Team