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After corporate IT gives out a MacBook, we run a local-only Ansible script I wrote. It sets .zshrc, .zshenv, and .zshenv-private for tokens etc. It also uses

After corporate IT gives out a MacBook, we run a local-only Ansible script I wrote. It sets .zshrc, .zshenv, and .zshenv-private for tokens etc. It also uses Homebrew to install a bunch of packages, then creates various config files. It works well. Developer setup time went from days to less than 2 hours (corporate VPN is slow) Edited to add: Workflow is: 1. Install homebrew, xcode command line tools, Ansible, and then git+credential helper. 2. Clone repo (which ensures the new dev has correct roles/groups to access the repo) 3. Run Ansible. Snippet of the Ansible script: --- - name: Configure dev macOS hosts: localhost vars_prompt: - name: githubtoken prompt: What is your github token? private: false tasks: - name: Create variable from brew prefix ansible.builtin.command: "brew --prefix" register: brew_prefix changed_when: false - name: Update Homebrew community.general.homebrew: update_homebrew: true - name: Install GNU Coreutils community.general.homebrew: name: coreutils state: present

ryan-duve 2y ago
I've never used Ansible. Is it worth using for just this workflow? I'm asking coming from a baseline of just having a Git-versioned shell script which has lines like brew install coreutils and whathaveyou.
- bloopernova 2y ago
  You get the nice stuff that Ansible brings, like adding specific lines to .zshrc, templates, etc. I found it easier than my usually-beloved shell scripts because I didn't need to think about the mechanism, just the result. For example, brew install coreutils would use the community.general.homebrew module: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/general/homebrew_module.html https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/communit... <-- you can see from that page that each module has lots of examples, which makes it pretty easy to go from requirements to Ansible script.
  - pushcx 2y ago
    You have to think about the mechanism if you remove a file. Ansible is imperative like a shell script, not declarative.

ryan-duve 2y ago

I've never used Ansible. Is it worth using for just this workflow? I'm asking coming from a baseline of just having a Git-versioned shell script which has lines like brew install coreutils and whathaveyou.

bloopernova 2y ago
You get the nice stuff that Ansible brings, like adding specific lines to .zshrc, templates, etc. I found it easier than my usually-beloved shell scripts because I didn't need to think about the mechanism, just the result. For example, brew install coreutils would use the community.general.homebrew module: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/general/homebrew_module.html https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/communit... <-- you can see from that page that each module has lots of examples, which makes it pretty easy to go from requirements to Ansible script.
- pushcx 2y ago
  You have to think about the mechanism if you remove a file. Ansible is imperative like a shell script, not declarative.