Role ansible_galaxy_role.package

The role ansible_galaxy_role.package will manage packages.

Requirements

Supported package managers:

• dnf
• yum
• apt

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Role Parameters

Parameter	Choices	Description
package_list	[] <--	Required List of packages
package_state	present <-- absent	Install (present) packages or remove (absent) packages
package_update_cache	yes <-- no	Update package manager cache i.e. run: apt update

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package_list details

Variable	Required	Description
name	yes	Package name
state	no	If not defined then it defaults to role's package_state
dnf_name	no	Dnf package name if different than name
yum_name	no	Yum package name if different than name
apt_name	no	Apt package name if different than name
dnf_ignore	no	Ignore package for dnf
yum_ignore	no	Ignore package for yum
apt_ignore	no	Ignore package for apt

The following package_list come predefined with the role:

• packages_homeco
  List of package the HomeCo team installs on every system.

Example package_list

packages_homeco:
  - name: net-tools
  - name: screen
  - name: mlocate
    apt_ignore: yes
  - name: mail
    dnf_name: mailx
    yum_name: mailx
    apt_name: mailutils

The ansible_galaxy_role.package role will install net-tools and screen on yum (CentOS) and apt (Ubuntu) systems.
Package mlocate will be installed only on yum (CentOS) systems.
For package definition mail the role will install package mailx on yum systems and mailutils on apt systems

packages_remove:
  - name: screen
    state: absent
  - name: tmux
    state: absent
    yum_ignore: yes

Package screen will be removed from any system.
Package tmux will be removed from apt (Ubuntu) systems.

NOTE: The variable package_list can have a mix of packages defined in different states (present, or absent), but should be used in rare cases, like one time runs and ad-hoc runs. To make the code easier to understand, the package_list variable should not have the state defined.
The state should be defined as role variable and it will apply to all packages defined in the package_list:

- { role: ansible_galaxy_role.package, package_list: '{{packages_old}}', package_state: absent }

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Example Playbook

Note: By default we ignores tasks tagged with with_packages.
For regular playbook run, that caries a few configuration changes, there is no need to wait for cache to be updated and packages status to be confirmed.
To override this default setting and install the packages run with: --with_packages

• Install packages as defined in the list

- name: PlaybookName
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - { role: ansible_galaxy_role.package, package_list: '{{ packages_homeco }}', tags: with_packages }

The above line is longer than 80 columns causing some editors to wrap the line, which will make the code hard to read, and it's not good practice.
Instead do this:

- name: PlaybookName
  hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: ansible_galaxy_role.package
      tags: with_packages
      vars:
        package_list: '{{ packages_homeco }}'

• Remove packages

- role: ansible_galaxy_role.package
  tags: with_packages
  vars:
    package_state: absent
    package_list: '{{ packages_old }}'

Note: Variable package_state is defined for the whole list. There is no need to specify the state of each package in the list. The variable packages_old can be just a list of names:

packages_old:
  - name: net-tools
  - name: mlocate
  - name: tmux

• package_list definition with the role

- role: ansible_galaxy_role.package
  tags: with_packages
  vars:
    package_list:
      - name: screen
        state: absent
      - name: tmux
        apt_ignore: yes

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