#!/usr/bin/env -S retext --preview

Ansible Playbook for MythTV

** Only runs on Ansible versions above 2.3. **

N.B. 6/7/2023, the directory for Ansible collections has been corrected. See requirements.yml and re-run if non Ansible core modules fail (most won't need to do this.)

This repository contains an Ansible playbook for user's that build MythTV from source. It's also used for setting up MythTV buildslaves.

First you need to clone the playbook:

git clone https://github.com/MythTV/ansible

cd <the directory just created>

Debian users running Wheezy (v7, obsolete stable release) will need to enable wheezy-backports. Jessie or later is recommended for 0.28 and above.

Install an ssh client and server for your distribution. You must be able to ssh into localhost from localhost without a password.

Install the Ansible package

Choose the appropriate command(s) for your distribution.

Distribution	Command
Archlinux	pacman -S ansible
Centos	yum install ansible (enable the EPEL repository first)
Debian (and derivatives)	apt install ansible
Fedora	dnf install ansible
macOS (macports)	port install py-ansible
macOS (homebrew)	brew install ansible
FreeBSD	pkg install py311-ansible
OpenSuse	zypper install ansible

Most users will use Ansible Community from their distribution. Ansible Core will require collections. They are defined in the included requirements.yml file. See it for how to load them.

Running the playbook

For most distributions, run the playbook as follows. Replace localhost with the --limit value in the table below if required. See mythtv.yml for an additional command line if this doesn't work for your distribution:

./mythtv.yml --limit=localhost

Distribution	--limit value
Fedora 30	f30 (36 went EOL on 2023/05/16)
macOS (using macports)	macports
macOS (using homebrew)	homebrew
FreeBSD	freebsd (was for python2.7 only)
Builders	builder
CPP Check and Doxygen	tools

Python Virtual Environment

By default, the playbook will not create a virtual environment for the MythTV Python modules. Virtual environments are the recommended solution for non-system Python code. Use your favorite search engine to see lots of discussions about using venvs. To create a venv and and print instructions for building MythTV using it, use following:

--extra-vars='{"venv_active":true}' --extra-vars='{"venv_path":"something other than ~/.virtualenvs/mythtv"}'

Qt6 Support (non-macOS)

For Qt6 support, add this:

--extra-vars='{"qt6":true}'

Qt5 Support (macOS)

Qt6 is the default for macOS on both macports and homebrew. To enable Qt5 for macports or homebrew, add this:

--extra-vars='{"qt5":true}'

macOS Homebrew Users

To disable the sudo / become prompt run add ANSIBLE_BECOME=false ANSIBLE_BECOME_ASK_PASS=False to the beginning of the command line (homebrew is already set to run without escalating privileges in the homebrew playbook). E.g.

ANSIBLE_BECOME=false ANSIBLE_BECOME_ASK_PASS=False ./mythtv.yml --limit=localhost

macOS MacPorts Users

By default macports uses mysql8 as the database. To specify a different database:

./mythtv.yml --extra-vars="database_version=mariadb-10.5" --limit=localhost

To specify a custom version of python3:

./mythtv.yml --extra-vars="ansible_python_interpreter=/opt/local/bin/python3.14" --limit=localhost

User Options

There is a README file under group_vars that explains how some of the options used in this playbook can be set. Most users won't need to create the file explained in the README.

Other Platforms

We welcome contributions to support additional platforms. Please open an issue and/or a pull request at https://github.com/MythTV/ansible/issues if you are interested in this. The output from a run of ./mythtv.yml ... is needed for starters.