[BUG]: Documentation unclear in regard on ansbile Version

[bufanda]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Current Behavior

When trying to build an updated AlmaLinux 8 Image (Generic Cloud) and having ansible-core 2.18 installed on host then the build process breaks since ansible-core 2.18 doesn't support platform-python (python3.6) anymore.

In the Documentation it is only stated that ansilbe >= 2.12 as to be used.

Expected Behavior

Documentation should state the last supported version for ansible for AlmaLinux 8.

Steps To Reproduce

main branch.
install latest ansible-core (2.18.x)
build almalinx 8 image

Anything else?

No response

Search terms

ansible python3.6 incompatible

[LKHN]

Thanks for reporting.

We build all images using the ansible-core-2.14.18-1.el9 since it's the latest version on the AppStream repository of AlmaLinux OS 9.

May I ask more details about your build environment please? Such as which distro do you use and how you installed the Ansible.

[LKHN]

Sorry, I didn't understand the problem on the first time. I going the reproduce the issue with the latest version of Ansible.

[bufanda]

I am building on Fedora 41 but installing ansible via pip into the virtual environment. Since I couldn't see a max version I just used latest. With that I get an error message that it can't find a suitable python version on the 8 VM.

I then downgraded to ansible 9 with ansible-core 2.16.x and then it works without issue.

It just took me a while to figure out what the underlying issue is and I think if the version was more limited in the documentation it could have help me to realize that my ansible version was too new.

Edit: I first was thinking it was the changes I did so I can build an Image for my XCP-ng environment with xen-guest-tools pre-installed.

[LKHN]

Yes, you are right. The highest Ansible version that supports EL8 is 2.16.x and it seems the only solution is to informing users with documentation update. Thanks a lot for such contribution!

Before ansible/ansible#82420, Ansible was using this to find the built-in python interpreters.

_INTERPRETER_PYTHON_DISTRO_MAP:
  name: Mapping of known included platform pythons for various Linux distros
  default:
    redhat:
      '6': /usr/bin/python
      '8': /usr/libexec/platform-python
      '9': /usr/bin/python3
    debian:
      '8': /usr/bin/python
      '10': /usr/bin/python3
    fedora:
      '23': /usr/bin/python3
    ubuntu:
      '14': /usr/bin/python
      '16': /usr/bin/python3
    # Entry only for testing
    ansible test:
      '99': /usr/bin/python99

Let's add ANSIBLE_PYTHON_INTERPRETER=/usr/libexec/platform-python to make Ansible to pick up the system's python interpreter.

  provisioner "ansible" {
    galaxy_file          = "./ansible/requirements.yml"
    galaxy_force_install = true
    collections_path     = "./ansible/collections"
    roles_path           = "./ansible/roles"
    playbook_file        = "./ansible/gencloud.yml"
    ansible_env_vars = [
      "ANSIBLE_PIPELINING=True",
      "ANSIBLE_REMOTE_TEMP=/tmp",
      "ANSIBLE_SCP_EXTRA_ARGS=-O",
      "ANSIBLE_PYTHON_INTERPRETER=/usr/libexec/platform-python",
    ]
    extra_arguments = [
      "--extra-vars",
      "is_unified_boot=true",
    ]
    only = ["qemu.almalinux-8-gencloud-x86_64"]
  }

Output:

fatal: [default]: FAILED! => {"ansible_facts": {}, "changed": false, "failed_modules": {"ansible.legacy.setup": {"failed": true, "module_stderr": "Warning: Permanently added '[127.0.0.1]:38885' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.\r\nTraceback (most recent call last):\n  File \"<stdin>\", line 107, in <module>\n  File \"<stdin>\", line 99, in _ansiballz_main\n  File \"<stdin>\", line 44, in invoke_module\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap>\", line 971, in _find_and_load\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap>\", line 951, in _find_and_load_unlocked\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap>\", line 894, in _find_spec\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>\", line 1157, in find_spec\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>\", line 1131, in _get_spec\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>\", line 1112, in _legacy_get_spec\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap>\", line 441, in spec_from_loader\n  File \"<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>\", line 544, in spec_from_file_location\n  File \"/tmp/ansible_ansible.legacy.setup_payload_bkt_vuag/ansible_ansible.legacy.setup_payload.zip/ansible/module_utils/basic.py\", line 5\nSyntaxError: future feature annotations is not defined\n", "module_stdout": "", "msg": "MODULE FAILURE: No start of json char found\nSee stdout/stderr for the exact error", "rc": 1}}, "msg": "The following modules failed to execute: ansible.legacy.setup\n"}

Unfortunately, installing newer version of Python like python3.12 does not solve the problem. Since the python3-dnf package is built against the Python 3.6. This package is used by ansible.builtin.dnf

Output

"Could not import the dnf python module using /usr/bin/python3.12 (3.12.8 (main, Dec 12 2024, 09:41:14) [GCC 8.5.0 20210514 (Red Hat 8.5.0-22)]). Please install `python3-dnf` package or ensure you have specified the correct ansible_python_interpreter. (attempted ['/usr/libexec/platform-python', '/usr/bin/python3', '/usr/bin/python'])"

[codyro]

It may be worth considering adding some assertions to make it even clearer/obvious/fail out cleanly.

EX;

- name: Ensure Ansible version is <= 2.16.x
  hosts: localhost
  gather_facts: false
  pre_tasks:
    - name: Check Ansible version
      assert:
        that: ansible_version.full is version('2.17.0', '<')
        fail_msg: >
          This playbook only supports Ansible <= 2.16.x, but version {{ ansible_version.full }} is running.

    - name: Debug version info
      debug:
        msg: "I only run when Ansible is <= 2.16.x!"