Policy ====== Below are some guidelines for developers contributing to `zuul-jobs`. .. contents:: :local: Deprecation Policy ------------------ Because `zuul-jobs` is intended for wide use by any Zuul, we try to take care when making backwards incompatible changes. If we need to do so, we will send a notice to the `zuul-announce`_ mailing list describing the change and indicating when it will be merged. We will usually wait at least two weeks between sending the announcement and merging the change. If the change affects your jobs, and you are unable to adjust to it within the timeframe, please let us know with a message to the `zuul-discuss`_ mailing list -- we may be able to adjust the timeframe. Otherwise, you may wish to temporarily switch to a local fork of `zuul-jobs` (or stop updating it if you already have). New Zuul Features ***************** When a new feature is available in Zuul, the jobs in `zuul-jobs` may not be able to immediately take advantage of it. We need to allow time for folks to upgrade their Zuul installations so they will be compatible with the change. In these cases, we will wait four weeks after the first Zuul release with the required feature before merging a change to `zuul-jobs` which uses it. Deprecated Zuul Features ************************ Before deprecating a feature in Zuul which is used by `zuul-jobs`, the usage of the feature must be removed from `zuul-jobs` according to the deprecation policy described above. Python Version Policy --------------------- ``zuul-jobs`` targets Python 2.7 onwards and Python 3.5 onwards (note this differs slightly from Ansible upstream, where the policy is 2.6 onwards unless libraries depend on newer features. `zuul-jobs` does not support Python 2.6). Library code should be written to be compatible with both. There are some tips on this in `Ansible and Python 3 `__. Coding guidelines ----------------- Role Variable Naming Policy *************************** Variables referenced by roles from global scope (often intended to be set via ``host_vars`` and ``group_vars``, but also set during role inclusion) must be namespaced by prepending their role-name to the variable. Thus ``example-role`` would have variables with names such as ``example_role_variable``; e.g. .. code-block:: yaml tasks: - name: Call "example" role include_role: name: example-role vars: example_role_variable: 'something' Support for Multiple Operating Systems ************************************** Ideally, roles should be able to run regardless of the OS or the distribution flavor of the host. A role can target a specific OS or distribution; in that case it should be mentioned in the role's documentation and start with a `fail` task if the host does not match the intended environment: .. code-block:: YAML tasks: - name: Make sure the role is run on XXX version Y fail: msg: "This role supports XXX version Y only" when: - ansible_distribution != "XXX" - ansible_distribution_major_version != "Y" Here are a few guidelines to help make roles OS-independent when possible: * Use the **package** module instead of **yum**, **apt** or other distribution-specific commands. * If more than one specific task is needed for a specific OS, these tasks should be stored in a separate YAML file in a `distros` subdirectory and named after the specific flavor they target. The following boilerplate code can be used to target specific flavors: .. code-block:: YAML tasks: - name: Execute distro-specific tasks include_tasks: "{{ lookup('first_found', params) }}" vars: params: files: - "mytasks-{{ ansible_distribution }}.{{ ansible_distribution_major_version }}.{{ ansible_architecture }}.yaml" - "mytasks-{{ ansible_distribution }}.{{ ansible_distribution_major_version }}.yaml" - "mytasks-{{ ansible_distribution }}.yaml" - "mytasks-{{ ansible_os_family }}.yaml" - "mytasks-default.yaml" paths: - distros If run on Fedora 29 x86_64, this playbook will attempt to include the first playbook found among * `distros/mytasks-Fedora.29.x86_64.yaml` * `distros/mytasks-Fedora.29.yaml` * `distros/mytasks-Fedora.yaml` * `distros/mytasks-RedHat.yaml` * `distros/mytasks-default.yaml` The default playbook should return a failure explaining the host's environment is not supported, or a skip if the tasks were optional. Handling privileges on hosts **************************** Zuul offers great freedom in the types and configurations of hosts on which roles are run. Therefore roles should not assume the amount of privileges they will be granted on hosts. Some settings may not allow any form of privilege escalation, meaning that some tasks such as installing packages will fail. In order to make a role available to as many hosts as possible, it is good practice to avoid privilege escalations: * Do not use ``become: yes`` in tasks, unless necessary * If installing software is required, favor software deployments in user land, like virtualenvs, if possible. * Check before executing a task requiring privilege escalation is actually needed (e.g. is the package to install already present, or is the firewall rule already set), and make the task skippable if its effects were already applied to the host. If privilege escalation is unavoidable, this should be mentioned in the role's documentation so that operators can choose or set up their hosts accordingly. If relevant, the specific steps where the privilege escalation occurs should be documented so that they can be reproduced when configuring hosts. If possible, they should be grouped in a separate playbook that can be applied to hosts manually. Ansible Loops in Roles ********************** Because the Ansible roles contained in this repo are expected to be pretty universally applicable in Zuul systems we must write them defensively to work around some Ansible behaviors. In particular nesting Ansible loops using the default `loop_var` of `item` is not safe. Roles in this repo should override the default `loop_var` in loops and use a variable name prefixed with `zj_` to make them more unique. The idea is this will avoid conflicts with the calling level which may use `include_role` in a loop creating a `loop_var` conflict. For example:: command: echo {{ zj_number }} loop: - one - two - three loop_control: loop_var: zj_number Installing Dependencies in Roles ******************************** Roles should be self-sufficient. This makes it sometimes necessary to pull dependencies within a role, in order to execute a task. Since this is usually an action requiring elevated privileges on the host, the guidelines in the previous paragraph apply. Again, ideally all the installation tasks should be grouped in a separate playbook. Here are the ways to install dependencies in order of preference: * Use the **package** module to install packages * Manage dependencies with `bindep `__ and the `bindep` role. * Use OS-specific tasks like **apt**, **yum** etc. to support as many OSes as possible. In any case, the role's documentation should mention which dependencies are needed, allowing users to prepare their hosts accordingly. Output Variables **************** Some roles may find it useful to set a variable that can be consumed by later roles. For example, the `ensure-pip` role sets a variable which specifies a working `virtualenv` command for the host. Roles should document their output under the **Output** section of their README documentation. The variable should use the `cacheable: true` flag to `set_fact` to ensure that the variable is available across playbooks. Testing ------- If you add a new role, please add a new job to test it. Because `zuul-jobs` is meant to be included in every Zuul tenant with no special include/exclude settings, everything in the ``zuul.d/`` directory must be suitable for any environment. It can not reference any secrets, nodesets, project templates, or jobs that are not in `zuul-jobs`. It is the public user interface for the project. Jobs which test the roles in `zuul-jobs` itself can be placed in the ``zuul-tests.d/`` directory of the project. This directory is read by OpenDev's Zuul, but is not intended to be used by any other Zuul. It may contain references to specific nodesets and other aspects of the OpenDev environment so that we can perform first-party testing of changes to `zuul-jobs`. The ``zuul-tests.d/`` directory is organized in the same way as the documentation, so when you add a role and add it to a documentation file, add a test job for it to a similarly named file in ``zuul-tests.d/``. Name the job the same as the role, but prefix it with ``zuul-jobs-test-``. There is a playbook which may provide sufficient test coverage for many simple roles by simply executing them. To use it, create a job like this: .. code-block:: yaml - job: name: zuul-jobs-test-your-new-role run: test-playbooks/simple-role-test.yaml vars: role_name: your-new-role If you need to do anything other than simply including a role (for example, testing how multiple roles interact, or performing validation after the role runs), you should probably make a dedicated playbook for the job. Some roles have special handling for different platforms and therefore need to be tested on each. Some notable examples include many of the roles which typically appear in base jobs. There is a script in ``tools/update-test-platforms.py`` which will look for jobs with the tags ``all-platforms`` or ``all-platforms-multinode`` and it will automatically create (or delete) identical jobs for each of the platforms that are available in OpenDev. If you don't need the whole set (perhaps you only need to test on one or two specific platforms), you can still do the same thing manually. .. _zuul-announce: http://lists.zuul-ci.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zuul-announce .. _zuul-discuss: http://lists.zuul-ci.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/zuul-discuss