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In most cases Yaml is bizarre kind of DSL with tricky way of API interaction. For instance - I don't understand why exactly the same Ansible API isn't just pyth

In most cases Yaml is bizarre kind of DSL with tricky way of API interaction. For instance - I don't understand why exactly the same Ansible API isn't just python library?

mdaniel 1y ago
For the same reason any DSL exists: because the programming representation is a lot more verbose than the DSL, due to the computers not currently honoring the "you know what I meant" flag #!/usr/bin/env python3 """A made up example of the line noise""" from ansible import * def main(): hosts = ["localhost"] for h in hosts: run_one_host(h) def run_one_host(inventory_hostname: str): connection = ansible.builtin.ssh(inventory_hostname) print("sniff out the machine's os") host_vars = ansible.builtin.setup(gather_subset="os", connection) if host_vars["distribution"] == "ubuntu": dest = "/etc/apt" else ... dest = "/etc/something else" print("do something awesome") copy_ok = ansible.builtin.copy(src="./some_file", dest=dest, connection) ... That said, I can't readily imagine why you couldn't do exactly what you said because the AnsibleModule[1] contract is JSON over stdin/stdout (and one can write Ansible modules in any programming language[2] - they just default to Python) 1: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py#L360 https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/lib/ansible/... 2: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.18/dev_guide/developing_program_flow_modules.html#binary-modules https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.18/dev_guide/develop... and https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/test/integration/targets/binary_modules/library/helloworld.go https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/test/integra...
- vrighter 1y ago
  python (as much as I personally dislike the language itself) has clean syntax for sets, dicts and arrays. Which are the data structures you use in a playbook. Ansible as python instead of yaml can be made to look very similar to current playbooks. But saner. And easier to script.
  - mdaniel 1y ago
    Oh, sorry I misunderstood, then. So, closer to the troposphere version of using python to generate json to feed into ansible?
    - vrighter 1y ago
      ansible is already written in python. Just eliminate the json/yaml and let us use it from python directly.

In most cases Yaml is bizarre kind of DSL with tricky way of API interaction. For instance - I don't understand why exactly the same Ansible API isn't just python library?

mdaniel 1y ago

For the same reason any DSL exists: because the programming representation is a lot more verbose than the DSL, due to the computers not currently honoring the "you know what I meant" flag #!/usr/bin/env python3 """A made up example of the line noise""" from ansible import * def main(): hosts = ["localhost"] for h in hosts: run_one_host(h) def run_one_host(inventory_hostname: str): connection = ansible.builtin.ssh(inventory_hostname) print("sniff out the machine's os") host_vars = ansible.builtin.setup(gather_subset="os", connection) if host_vars["distribution"] == "ubuntu": dest = "/etc/apt" else ... dest = "/etc/something else" print("do something awesome") copy_ok = ansible.builtin.copy(src="./some_file", dest=dest, connection) ... That said, I can't readily imagine why you couldn't do exactly what you said because the AnsibleModule[1] contract is JSON over stdin/stdout (and one can write Ansible modules in any programming language[2] - they just default to Python) 1: https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/lib/ansible/module_utils/basic.py#L360 https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/lib/ansible/... 2: https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.18/dev_guide/developing_program_flow_modules.html#binary-modules https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-core/2.18/dev_guide/develop... and https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/test/integration/targets/binary_modules/library/helloworld.go https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.18.4/test/integra...

vrighter 1y ago
python (as much as I personally dislike the language itself) has clean syntax for sets, dicts and arrays. Which are the data structures you use in a playbook. Ansible as python instead of yaml can be made to look very similar to current playbooks. But saner. And easier to script.
- mdaniel 1y ago
  Oh, sorry I misunderstood, then. So, closer to the troposphere version of using python to generate json to feed into ansible?
  - vrighter 1y ago
    ansible is already written in python. Just eliminate the json/yaml and let us use it from python directly.