apt-get autoremove - how to use it and how to check that it is doing what it should ?

[Wayne Pascoe]

Hi all,

I'm trying to create some simple playbooks to manage a few hosts. One of the tasks I'm trying to complete is to autoremove unneeded packages. I'm using Ansible 2.1.0 on Ubuntu 14.04 (control machine and managed hosts).

I started with the following playbook:

---
- hosts: vpn_endpoint
  tasks:
      - name: update apt packages
        apt: upgrade=dist update_cache=yes
        become: yes
      - name: autoremove unneeded packages
        command: apt-get -y autoremove
        become: yes

This worked, but provided the following warning:

TASK [autoremove unneeded packages] ********************************************
changed: [host]
 [WARNING]: Consider using apt-get module rather than running apt-get

Some searching showed me some projects that use a variable 'apt_autoremove: yes' (e.g. https://github.com/weareinteractive/ansible-apt/blob/master/README.md) but I do not see any mention of this in the source at https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/blob/stable-2.0/packaging/os/apt.py

I tried modifying my playbook to be the following:

---
- hosts: all
  vars:
      apt_cache_valid_time: 3600
      apt_autoremove: yes
      apt_autoclean: yes
  tasks:
      - name: update apt packages
        apt: upgrade=dist update_cache=yes
        become: yes

After doing that, I no longer see the warning, but the autoremove step on the host is not being done (see the following output for apt-get dist-upgrade).

Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  linux-headers-3.13.0-32 linux-headers-3.13.0-32-generic
  linux-headers-3.13.0-51 linux-headers-3.13.0-51-generic
  linux-image-3.13.0-32-generic linux-image-3.13.0-51-generic
  linux-image-extra-3.13.0-32-generic linux-image-extra-3.13.0-51-generic
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

So that brings me to my question - what's the right way to do an auto remove step with apt and Ansible ? Should I stick to the command module and ignore the warning ? If so, is there any way to supress the warning just for this specific task ?

Thanks in advance,

[Pär Berge]

Hi,

I would use command (or shell) until it's implemented in apt module.

Here is the feature request issue ticket:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core/issues/965

[Mischa ter Smitten]

It's implemented in this role.

Op maandag 4 januari 2016 16:11:36 UTC+1 schreef Wayne Pascoe:

[Wayne Pascoe]

Thanks,

Is there any way to supress the error on this particular play until then ?

[Wayne Pascoe]

Thanks - I'm trying to avoid pulling in an entire role if I can help it, so the shell play looks simpler for now.