Don't --force install collections

[jcmdln]

If we already have the referenced collections/roles then there is no need to re-download them. If users require specific versions this can be specified in the associated requirements files which would trigger a download as needed.

[Thulium-Drake]

I don't agree, that's not how galaxy works, unfortunately... If you want to make any change to installed roles/collections, you must use --force. Even when doing updates, as Galaxy client does not yet provide a facility for this task.

[jcmdln]

If you have a requirements.yml file with the following format without a version specifier, the collections will be installed if missing:

# requirements.yml
---
collections:
  - name: community.crypto
  - name: community.general

$ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml 
Starting galaxy collection install process
Nothing to do. All requested collections are already installed. If you want to reinstall them, consider using `--force`.

If I then specify a version for a single collection, ansible-galaxy triggers the install of the specified version:

---
collections:
  - name: community.crypto
  - name: community.general
    version: "6.5.0"

$ ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml 
Starting galaxy collection install process
Process install dependency map
Starting collection install process
Downloading https://galaxy.ansible.com/download/community-general-6.5.0.tar.gz to /home/user/.ansible/tmp/ansible-local-26013207r21uwhr/tmpfs57mfrl/community-general-6.5.0-xzox02d5
'community.crypto:2.13.0' is already installed, skipping.
Installing 'community.general:6.5.0' to '/home/user/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/community/general'
community.general:6.5.0 was installed successfully

[grvlbit]

I think this discussion needs to be separated into roles and collections.

For collections there is a --upgrade flag for ansible-galaxy collection install (see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections_guide/collections_installing.html#installing-collections-with-ansible-galaxy).
However, as @Thulium-Drake already pointed out this won't work for roles. For roles the upgrade feature has been requested for a long time ansible/ansible issue 6466 but hasn't been implemented so far.

My suggestion is to replace the --force flag by the --upgrade flag for collections and leave the roles install unchanged until the upgrade feature is implemented upstream at some point.

[jcmdln]

My suggestion is to replace the --force flag by the --upgrade flag for collections and leave the roles install unchanged until the upgrade feature is implemented upstream at some point.

I agree with this.

[NiceRath]

It should be '--upgrade' not '--update'!

[jcmdln]

@NiceRath Thanks!

After some extended use, personally I don't want the globally installed collections to be upgraded on every run as this causes a lot of churn and API calls to Ansible Galaxy, especially with large and complicated playbooks. Existing Collections should be left alone unless the requirements.yml specifies a version that isn't installed.

[NiceRath]

Im my opinion it would make sense that users can configure this behaviour themselfs on repository scope.

For example:

• Requirements
  • ( ) Ignore (manually managed)
  • ( ) Install
  • ( ) Upgrade (role: force, col: upgrade)
  • ( ) Force

[jcmdln]

My goal with this PR was to avoid Ansible Galaxy timeouts with the current behavior. Since I appear to have a unique constraint I'll defer to carrying this as a patch for my own needs as to not interrupt the flow of others.

[00willo]

Linking to the ansible role update feature proposal (ansible/proposals#23) for completeness.