[polski-g]

My biggest problem with Ansible is the YAML, doing anything with loops is horrendous & trying to mangle nested variable types requires a StackOverflow post every time.

A few years ago, I found a library that lets you utilize Ansible's tasks in raw Python, without the huge hassle of using the Ansible Python API. I cannot find it again however. But PyInfra looks great.

[Fizzadar]

This alone is the entire reason I started working on pyinfra, loops in YAML is just evil.

[bruh2]

Why did you choose to roll your own modules rather than do what's described in the comment you replied to, i.e. provide a Python layer for interacting with the rich set of available Ansible modules?

Not trying to be rude ofc, I'm sure you considered it and have a good reason – just curious as of what it is. An incredible project you put there, nonetheless:)

[Fizzadar]

Not rude at all :) When I first started (not sure if this is still the case?) Ansible would push Python code to the target machine and execute there, meaning it wasn’t actually agentless. I always thought of pyinfra as copying what a human would do if configuring a server by hand over SSH, so new modules that use only shell commands were needed.

[natebc]

I recall the Ansible Python API to be labeled as Interal Use Only and subject to change on a whim because of that. That at least discouraged using ansible in that way.

Seems they still kinda discourage it but do have examples at least.

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/dev_guide/developing...

[geerlingguy]

It could be interesting if you could write a translator to use any Ansible module with this, and vice versa.

[movedx]

But you can just write a small module in Python, have it do the looping logic for you, install it at the root of your project's configuration-as-code repository, and then use the module in the YAML, removing the need to do complex, ugly loops in YAML.

Is there a reason this isn't an option for you?