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Migrating Ansible content to a different collection

docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_collections_migrating.rst

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.. _migrate_to_collection:

Migrating Ansible content to a different collection

You might decide to move content from one collection to another; for example, to extract a set of related modules out of community.general or community.network to create a more focused collection. When you migrate content between collections, you must take certain steps to ensure users can follow the transition.

.. contents:: :local: :depth: 2

Migrating content

If the collection from which you are going to migrate content is included in the Ansible community package <https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/>_, ensure the target collection satisfies the :ref:collections_requirements. After you satisfy the requirements, you can migrate the content as follows:

#. Copy content from the source (old) collection to the target (new) collection. #. Change M(), examples, seealso, extended_documentation_fragments to use actual FQCNs in moved content, old collection, and in other collections that have references to the content. #. Move all related issues, pull requests, and wiki pages. #. Look through the docs/docsite directory of the ansible-documentation GitHub repository <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-documentation>_ (for example, using the grep command-line utility) to check if there are examples using the moved modules and plugins so that you can update those FQCNs. #. Deprecate the module/plugin with removal_version scheduled for the next major version in meta/runtime.yml of the old collection. The deprecation must be released after the copied content has been included in a release of the new collection. #. When the next major release of the old collection is prepared:

  • remove the module/plugin from the old collection

  • remove related unit and integration tests

  • remove specific module utils (if they are NOT used by other modules/plugins or module_utils)

  • remove specific documentation fragments if there are any in the old collection

  • add a changelog fragment containing entries for removed_features and breaking_changes; you can see an example of a changelog fragment in this pull request <https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/pull/1304>_

  • change meta/runtime.yml in the old collection:

    • add redirect to the corresponding module/plugin's entry
    • in particular, add redirect for the removed module utils and documentation fragments if applicable
    • remove removal_version from there

  • remove related entries from tests/sanity/ignore.txt files if exist

  • remove changelog fragments for removed content that are not yet part of the changelog (in other words, do not modify changelogs/changelog.yaml and do not delete files mentioned in it)

  • remove requirements that are no longer required in tests/unit/requirements.txt, tests/requirements.yml and galaxy.yml

To implement these changes, you need to create at least three PRs:

#. Create a PR against the new collection to copy the content. #. Deprecate the module/plugin in the old collection. #. Later create a PR against the old collection to remove the content according to the schedule.

Adding the content to the new collection

Create a PR in the new collection to:

#. Copy ALL the related files from the old collection. #. If it is an action plugin, include the corresponding module with documentation. #. If it is a module, check if it has a corresponding action plugin that should move with it. #. Check meta/ for relevant updates to runtime.yml if it exists. #. Carefully check the moved tests/integration and tests/units and update for FQCN. #. Review tests/sanity/ignore-*.txt entries in the old collection. #. Update meta/runtime.yml in the old collection.

Removing the content from the old collection

Create a PR against the source collection repository to remove the modules, module_utils, plugins, and docs_fragments related to this migration:

#. If you are removing an action plugin, remove the corresponding module that contains the documentation. #. If you are removing a module, remove any corresponding action plugin that should stay with it. #. Remove any entries about removed plugins from meta/runtime.yml. Ensure they are added into the new repo. #. Remove sanity ignore lines from tests/sanity/ignore\*.txt #. Remove associated integration tests from tests/integrations/targets/ and unit tests from tests/units/plugins/. #. if you are removing from content from community.general or community.network, remove entries from .github/BOTMETA.yml. #. Carefully review meta/runtime.yml for any entries you may need to remove or update, in particular deprecated entries. #. Update meta/runtime.yml to contain redirects for EVERY PLUGIN, pointing to the new collection name.

.. warning::

Maintainers for the old collection have to make sure that the PR is merged in a way that it does not break user experience and semantic versioning:

#. A new version containing the merged PR must not be released before the collection the content has been moved to has been released again, with that content contained in it. Otherwise the redirects cannot work and users relying on that content will experience breakage.
#. Once 1.0.0 of the collection from which the content has been removed has been released, such PRs can only be merged for a new **major** version (in other words, 2.0.0, 3.0.0, and so on).

Updating BOTMETA.yml

The BOTMETA.yml, for example in community.general collection repository <https://github.com/ansible-collections/community.general/blob/main/.github/BOTMETA.yml>_, is the source of truth for:

  • ansibullbot

If the old and/or new collection has ansibullbot, its BOTMETA.yml must be updated correspondingly.

Ansibulbot will know how to redirect existing issues and PRs to the new repo. The build process for docs.ansible.com will know where to find the module docs.

.. code-block:: yaml

$modules/monitoring/grafana/grafana_plugin.py: migrated_to: community.grafana $modules/monitoring/grafana/grafana_dashboard.py: migrated_to: community.grafana $modules/monitoring/grafana/grafana_datasource.py: migrated_to: community.grafana $plugins/callback/grafana_annotations.py: maintainers: $team_grafana labels: monitoring grafana migrated_to: community.grafana $plugins/doc_fragments/grafana.py: maintainers: $team_grafana labels: monitoring grafana migrated_to: community.grafana

Example PR <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/66981/files>_

  • The migrated_to: key must be added explicitly for every file. You cannot add migrated_to at the directory level. This is to allow module and plugin webdocs to be redirected to the new collection docs.

  • migrated_to: MUST be added for every:

    • module
    • plugin
    • module_utils
    • contrib/inventory script

  • You do NOT need to add migrated_to for:

    • Unit tests
    • Integration tests
    • ReStructured Text docs (anything under docs/docsite/rst/)
    • Files that never existed in ansible/ansible:devel

.. seealso::

:ref:collections Learn how to install and use collections. :ref:contributing_maintained_collections Guidelines for contributing to selected collections :ref:Communication<communication> Got questions? Need help? Want to share your ideas? Visit the Ansible communication guide