Python 3 Support

Ansible 2.2 features a tech preview of Python 3 support. This topic discusses how you can test to make sure your modules and playbooks work with Python 3.

Testing Python 3 with commands and playbooks

• Run Ansible 2.2+ :ref:`from_source
• To test Python 3 on the controller, run your ansible command via python3. For example:

python3 /usr/bin/ansible localhost -m ping
python3 /usr/bin/ansible-playbook sample-playbook.yml

You can also install Ansible using pip for Python3 which will make the default /usr/bin/ansible run with Python3:

$ virtualenv py3-ansible
$ source ./bin/activate
$ pip3 install ansible
$ ansible --version|grep python
python version = 3.5.3 (default, May 10 2017, 15:05:55) [GCC 6.3.1 20161221 (Red Hat 6.3.1-1)]

Testing Python 3 module support

• Set the ansible_python_interpreter configuration option to /usr/bin/python3. The ansible_python_interpreter configuration option is usually set per-host as an inventory variable associated with a host or group of hosts:

  # Example inventory that makes an alias for localhost that uses python3
  [py3-hosts]
  localhost-py3 ansible_host=localhost ansible_connection=local

  [py3-hosts:vars]
  ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3

See the :ref:`inventory documentation <inventory>` for more information.

• Run your command or playbook:

ansible localhost-py3 -m ping
ansible-playbook sample-playbook.yml

Note that you can also use the -e command line option to manually set the python interpreter when you run a command. For example:

ansible localhost -m ping -e 'ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3'
ansible-playbook sample-playbook.yml -e 'ansible_python_interpreter=/usr/bin/python3'

What to do if an incompatibility is found

If you find a bug while testing modules with Python3 you can submit a bug report on Ansible’s GitHub project. Be sure to mention Python3 in the bug report so that the right people look at it.

If you would like to fix the code and submit a pull request on github, you can refer to Ansible and Python 3 for information on how we fix common Python3 compatibility issues in the Ansible codebase.