Ansible Role: Package Installation

This role can be used to install a bunch of packages on different Linux distributions (so far Arch Linux and Ubuntu). I use it as part of my laptop/desktop setup process. This way the same software packages are installed on all my machines. Well, actually depending on what I use a specific computer for, I install different sets of packages. That's why I split all packages up into groups:

• ansible: Packages needed for Ansible (on a controlling machine).
• bluetooth: Packages needed to use Bluetooth.
• browser: Some browsers that I like to use. Either for day-to-day use or for testing.
• development: Packages needed for (software) development (cmake, make, ...).
• email: Packages needed for emailing. Right no this is just thunderbird, but since I might switch to (Neo)Mutt in the future, I let it in here.
• essential: Packages that I pretty much need on every machine that I work on (e.g. neovim, or git).
• font: Some font that I use.
• multimedia: Packages to work with different media files (e.g. music players, or image viewers)
• network: Packages needed for networking.
• nice_to_have: Some packages I could probably live without, but that are nice to have :-).
• office: Packages needed for document generation like latex and pandoc, but also libreoffice, and some others.
• python: Python packages that I want to have installed system wide. I don't like to install them with pip (I use pip only for virtual environments). Therefore these packages are also installed via the distro's package manager.
• secret: Packages for password management.
• virtualization: Packages to use containers or virtual machines.
• x_related: Packages related to the X server. Of corse xorg itself, but also for example xmobar that I use in my xmonad configuration.

So far it has only be tried on two virtual (Vagrant) machines. There hasn't been any real testing. If I find the time to really test everything, I will do that, but for now, I just use it as it is.

Requirements

This role was written to setup Arch Linux and Ubuntu machine. I would think it should also work any other Arch- or Debian-based distro as well, but I haven't tried. If you use it on an Arch machine pacman needs to be installed; if you use it on Ubuntu apt has to be installed. Well, I guess there is actually no need to mention that, because these are the default packages managers in those distros.

Role Variables

The following variable is in vars/main.yml:

• package_types: It's a list of the different package types that I defined to group packages together by a common subject (s. above).

The following variables are in vars/list_of_{{ ansible_os_family }}_packages.yml. They each define a list of distro depended packages that I wanted to have for each type defined in package_types.

• list_of_ansible_packages
• list_of_bluetooth_packages
• list_of_browser_packages
• list_of_development_packages
• list_of_email_packages
• list_of_essential_packages
• list_of_font_packages
• list_of_multimedia_packages
• list_of_network_packages
• list_of_nice_to_have_packages
• list_of_office_packages
• list_of_python_packages
• list_of_secret_packages
• list_of_virtualization_packages
• list_of_x_related_packages

On Ubuntu not all packages that I want to install are in the official (apt) repositories. Therefore they have to be installed using pip or snap. Therefore the following lists are also in vars/list_of_Debian_packages.yml:

• list_of_ansible_pip_packages

• list_of_multimedia_pip_packages

• list_of_browser_snap_packages

• list_of_development_snap_packages

• list_of_essential_snap_packages

On Ubuntu the pip packages uberzug needs some dependencies that have to be installed separately. That's what the following list in vars/list_of_Debin_packages.yml is for.

• list_of_ueberzug_dependencies

In defaults/main.yml are the following boolean variables. They determine whether or not the packages that belong to a certain type are installed or not. If you don't want to install the packages of a certain type, you disable the installation of these packages by overwriting the specific variable with "false". Per default they are all set to "true", so all packages are installed.

• install_ansible_packages: true
• install_bluetooth_packages: true
• install_browser_packages: true
• install_development_packages: true
• install_email_packages: true
• install_essential_packages: true
• install_font_packages: true
• install_multimedia_packages: true
• install_network_packages: true
• install_nice_to_have_packages: true
• install_office_packages: true
• install_python_packages: true
• install_secret_packages: true
• install_virtualization_packages: true
• install_x_related_packages: true

There are are also the following variable in defaults/main.yml, that let you decide whether or not you want to install a lists of snap packages.

• install_browser_snap_packages: true
• list_of_development_snap_packages: true
• install_essential_snap_packages: true

Dependencies

None

Example Playbook

- hosts: localhost
  roles:
     - { role: schuam.package_installation }

License

MIT

Author Information

This role was created in 2022 by Andreas Schuster.