installing ansible 2.11 on debian 11

[Alex Cernat]

Hello

The official documentation seems to be really outdated (ubuntu trusty is veeeeeery old, should be at least focal as repository). I could not find any 2.11 deb package (latest is 2.10.x), but also I couldn't find any official statement that from 2.11 onward the only/recommended way to install ansible-core is with pip, and there will be no more official deb packages for ansible/ansible-core (other than the ones from debian distribution, which already are outdated - a version behind).

Could anyone clarify this issue ? (maybe with official statements / links)

Thank you!

[Antony Stone]

On Sunday 08 August 2021 at 11:24:53, Alex Cernat wrote:

> Hello
>
> The official documentation seems to be really outdated (ubuntu trusty is
> veeeeeery old, should be at least focal as repository).

You may find http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible/ubuntu/dists/ helpful.

> I could not find any 2.11 deb package (latest is 2.10.x), but also I couldn't
> find any official statement that from 2.11 onward the only/recommended way to
> install ansible-core is with pip, and there will be no more official deb
> packages for ansible/ansible-core (other than the ones from debian
> distribution, which already are outdated - a version behind).

I notice you're also trying to install on Debian 11, which is still classified
as "testing" and does not yet have a planned stable release date.

> Could anyone clarify this issue ? (maybe with official statements / links)

I'm not aware of any decision not to continue providing .deb packages, but
it's unlikely you're going to find a statement to that effect anywhere, since
it's simply the absence of a decision to change anything.


Antony.

--
Never automate fully anything that does not have a manual override capability.
Never design anything that cannot work under degraded conditions in emergency.

Please reply to the list;
please *don't* CC me.

[Alex Cernat]

Pe duminică, 8 august 2021, la 12:47:41 UTC+3, Antony Stone a scris:

On Sunday 08 August 2021 at 11:24:53, Alex Cernat wrote:

> Hello
>
> The official documentation seems to be really outdated (ubuntu trusty is
> veeeeeery old, should be at least focal as repository).

You may find http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible/ubuntu/dists/ helpful. 

like I said, I could not find any 2.11 ansible-core package on that repository, only 2.10 ansible-base; checked again .. nothing!

> I could not find any 2.11 deb package (latest is 2.10.x), but also I couldn't
> find any official statement that from 2.11 onward the only/recommended way to
> install ansible-core is with pip, and there will be no more official deb
> packages for ansible/ansible-core (other than the ones from debian
> distribution, which already are outdated - a version behind).

I notice you're also trying to install on Debian 11, which is still classified
as "testing" and does not yet have a planned stable release date.  

actually, if no "calamity level bug" will be discovered, debian 11 will be released next week on 14 august, so its "stableness" is very high in this moment (some - not few - are even using testing in production)
if you can find a 2.11 ansible-core deb package even for the stable version (debian 10), I am very curious, because I could not find it 

> Could anyone clarify this issue ? (maybe with official statements / links)

I'm not aware of any decision not to continue providing .deb packages, but
it's unlikely you're going to find a statement to that effect anywhere, since
it's simply the absence of a decision to change anything.

ansible is officially supported in debian (debian packages of ansible 2.10 in deb 11), but until now latest version of ansible was available from ansible team themself; since we are already at 2.11.3, the lack of official packages combined with the lack (afaik) of some official statement (like we will not provide anymore deb packages) gives me headaches :-P

Alex

[Alex Cernat]

For those interested: just found ansible-core 2.11 for ubuntu (and also debian).

https://launchpad.net/~ansible/+archive/ubuntu/ansible-4
http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible-4/ubuntu/pool/main/a/ansible-core/

it seems to be the same signing key with the "old" (pre 2.11) ansible repository; tomorrow is testing day :-P

but all this is wrong, very wrong, I should find this information with a simple search, not digging for hours reading articles and documentation and discovering it by chance ...

Alex

[f.floimai...@gmail.com]

Debian always uses somewhat "old" versions, they just take whatever is stable as soon as feature-freeze date comes. So even for a "recent" release (like Debian 11 Bullseye) you can expect their version to be at least half if not a year behind.

What they do though is backport security fixes to those versions should they come up, but they will never ever upgrade to a more recent release until the next version of the distro.

[Antony Stone]

On Monday 16 August 2021 at 13:00:52, f.floimai...@gmail.com wrote:

> Debian always uses somewhat "old" versions, they just take whatever is
> stable as soon as feature-freeze date comes.

> What they do though is backport security fixes to those versions should
> they come up, but they will never ever upgrade to a more recent release
> until the next version of the distro.

That may be true of Debian, but isn't part of the whole point of Ubuntu (which
these repositories are for) that it has a 6-monthly release cycle, allowing it
to keep far more up-to-date with package releases than Debian does?

> alex....@gmail.com schrieb am Sonntag, 8. August 2021 um 23:26:14 UTC+2:
> >

> > https://launchpad.net/~ansible/+archive/ubuntu/ansible-4
> > http://ppa.launchpad.net/ansible/ansible-4/ubuntu/pool/main/a/ansible-
> > core/

> >
> > it seems to be the same signing key with the "old" (pre 2.11) ansible
> > repository; tomorrow is testing day :-P

Antony.

--
If you ask a Yorkshireman whether he knows the German word for "egg",
don't be surprised if he just smiles and says "Aye".

[Alex Cernat]

Yes, of course, Debian's first word is stability, so you cannot find very easy bleeding edge tehnology like in other distributions. Actually in Bullseye ansible version is 2.10, which is not quite old (at least for now).
But for those who what to use latest version of ansible on debian/ubuntu servers, repository is listed below (found by chance).
Pity that although the repository name it's kind of logic if you now ansible history and future, it's not listed anywhere in the docs. Not even knowing what repository url was is not helping me to find it official ... hope that documentation will be updated soon. 

Alex

[Alex Cernat]

Pe luni, 16 august 2021, la 14:05:42 UTC+3, Antony Stone a scris:

On Monday 16 August 2021 at 13:00:52, f.floimai...@gmail.com wrote:

> Debian always uses somewhat "old" versions, they just take whatever is
> stable as soon as feature-freeze date comes.

> What they do though is backport security fixes to those versions should
> they come up, but they will never ever upgrade to a more recent release
> until the next version of the distro.

That may be true of Debian, but isn't part of the whole point of Ubuntu (which
these repositories are for) that it has a 6-monthly release cycle, allowing it
to keep far more up-to-date with package releases than Debian does?

indeed, Ubuntu makes 2 releases per year, but if you want LTS, then the release cycle will be one at two years, exactly as the one for Debian 

Alex

[f.floimai...@gmail.com]

Well, right. But the title of the thread is "installing 2.11 on debian 11" - an explicit Debian version - so why should I bother taking Ubuntu let alone different versions of them into account?

It was a specific answer to a specific question.

[Alex Cernat]

actually there is no official (as in "from ansible team") ansible  package for debian; the packages are made for different releases of ubuntu, but they are very compatible (i.e. debian 11 ~ ubuntu focal)