Ansible Role: Utils

Main branch	Developer branch

Description

This role installs several essential utilities. It contains multiple lists, allowing you to enable or disable features as you wish.

Basic utilities include:

• command-not-found: suggests package installations in interactive bash sessions (Not available on CentOS)
• dstat: generates system resource statistics
• htop: interactive process viewer for Linux
• atop: another process viewer for Linux
• smem: reports on memory usage
• unzip: unpacks zip files
• zip: compresses files into zip format
• gzip: works with gzip files
• bzip2: works with bzip2 files
• nano: simple text editor
• vim: advanced text editor (Failed on CentOS 5 as it’s already installed as vi)
• git: distributed version control system for working with GitHub
• bash-completion: command line autocompletion, similar to Ubuntu (Only added for RedHat playbook).

Network utilities include:

• curl: transfers data using URL syntax
• iftop: shows bandwidth usage on an interface
• mtr: network diagnostic tool
• tshark: analyzes network traffic
• nmap: network security scanner
• wget: download manager
• telnet: traditional telnet command

File system utilities include:

• iotop: shows IO usage by processes
• ncdu: interactive console disk usage visualizer
• lsof: lists open files
• tree: shows directory structure in a tree format
• mc: classic file manager

Developer utilities include:

• pstack: shows execution stack trace of active processes
• strace: traces system calls and signals
• ltrace: traces library calls

Backward compatibility for CentOS7

• net-tools: adds the ipconfig command to CentOs7

Platforms:

• CentOS
• RedHat
• Debian
• Ubuntu

Requirements

None at the moment.

Role Variables

# Role behavior:
utils_install_basic: True               # Installs basic tools list if true.
utils_install_network: True             # Installs network tools list if true.
utils_install_filesystem: True          # Installs filesystem tools list if true.
utils_install_dev: False                # Installs developer tools list if true.
utils_install_redhat7_system: True      # Installs old packages list for CentOS 7 if true.
utils_install_user: True                # Installs user-defined packages list if true.

# Role lists:
utils_list_basic: []                    # Placeholder for basic tools. Check vars/main.yml
utils_list_network: []                  # Placeholder for network tools. Check vars/main.yml
utils_list_filesystem: []               # Placeholder for filesystem tools. Check vars/main.yml
utils_list_dev: []                      # Placeholder for developer tools. Check vars/main.yml
utils_list_redhat7_system: []           # Placeholder for RedHat 7 tools. Check vars/main.yml
utils_list_user: []                     # Placeholder for user tools. Check vars/main.yml

# Apt behavior:
utils_update_cache: True                # Updates application cache before execution if true.
utils_upgrade_software: True            # Upgrades installed software if true.
utils_cache_valid: "3600"               # Cache validity period in seconds.
utils_upgrade_type: "safe"              # Default upgrade method: 
                                        # "yes" or "safe" for safe-upgrade
                                        # "full" for full-upgrade
                                        # "dist" for dist-upgrade

Dependencies

This role is independent.

Example Playbook

Executing this role might take some time. It's recommended to use the free ansible playbook strategy if possible.

- hosts: localhost
  strategy: free
  roles:
    - { role: insspb.utils }

Development information

This role is developed with community input. The development process follows these guidelines:

• You can add any pull request to the develop branch. All requests will be addressed promptly.
• If you want to contribute but don’t know where to start, check the issues.
• The master branch is updated with significant changes from develop.
• Please provide documentation for new features.
• Use variables.
• Remember to set defaults.
• Strive to maintain backward compatibility if possible.
• Use package installation as the default method. Source installation should be optional.
• Use official software repositories over generic ones.
• Keep the role independent of others, allowing users to choose which roles to use.

License

MIT

Author Information

This role is contributed to and maintained by Andrey Shpak. I am available for hire.