How to build Ansible?

[Matthew Davis]

I asked this in github issue #55900 but got directed here.

I want to contribute to Ansible.

I have a patch I want to submit. But first I need to run it to make sure it actually works.

How can I run Ansible from source?

The github README and the Contributing to Ansible doc pages do not explain how.

What I tried:

I looked in `README.rst`, but there are no instructions there.

I see a `Makefile`, and no `config.sh` or `autoconfig.sh`. So I try just `make`.

```
ImportError: No module named **packaging.version**
```

I see `requirements.txt`. There is no comment in there or anywhere else telling me whether that's for python 2 or 3.

```
virtualenv env -p $(which python3)
. ./env/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
make
```

Same error

```
pip install packaging
make
```

Now that does build. But why is `packaging` not in `requirements.txt`?

Then I try to find where the build output is.

```
$ find ./ -name ansible | xargs file
./build/lib/ansible:                   directory
./build/scripts-3.6/ansible:           Python script, ASCII text executable
./bin/ansible:                         Python script, ASCII text executable
./docs/docsite/js/ansible:             directory
./lib/ansible:                         directory
./packaging/macports/sysutils/ansible: directory
./packaging/port/sysutils/ansible:     directory
./test/integration/targets/ansible:    directory
./test/runner/injector/ansible:        symbolic link to python.py
```
Then `./bin/ansible --version`. That fails with `ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'ansible'`

Same with `./build/scripts-3.6/ansible --version`.

I want to contribute, but I just can't figure out how.

* What dependencies do I need?
* python 2 or 3?
* do I need to run `setup.py` or something to install the output of the build process into a virtualenv in order to actually test it?

Thanks,
Matt

[Matthew Davis]

Ah, I ended up getting a reply on that github thread.

The answer is here: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/installation_guide/intro_installation.html#running-from-source

I have submitted PR #55902 to add that link to the README.

Regards,
Matt