Ansible - Download latest release binary from Github repo - url

Question

With Ansible please advise how i could download the latest release binary from Github repository. As per my current understanding the steps would be:
a. get URL of latest release
b. download the release
For a. I have something like which does not provide the actual release (ex. v0.11.53):
- name: get latest Gogs release
local_action:
module: uri
url: https://github.com/gogits/gogs/releases/latest
method: GET
follow_redirects: no
status_code: 301
register: release_url
For b. I have the below which works but needs constant updating. Instead of version i would need a variable set in a.:
- name: download latest
become: yes
become-user: "{{gogs_user}}"
get_url:
url: https://github.com/gogs/gogs/releases/download/v0.11.53/linux_amd64.tar.gz
dest: "/home/{{gogs_user}}/linux_amd64.tar.gz"
Thank you!

Answer 1

Github has an API to manipulate the release which is documented.
so imagine you want to get the latest release of ansible (which belong to the project ansible) you would
call the url https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/releases/latest
get an json structure like this
{
"url": "https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/releases/5120666",
"assets_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/releases/5120666/assets",
"upload_url": "https://uploads.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/releases/5120666/assets{?name,label}",
"html_url": "https://github.com/ansible/ansible/releases/tag/v2.2.1.0-0.3.rc3",
"id": 5120666,
"node_id": "MDc6UmVsZWFzZTUxMjA2NjY=",
"tag_name": "v2.2.1.0-0.3.rc3",
"target_commitish": "devel",
"name": "THESE ARE NOT OUR OFFICIAL RELEASES",
...
},
"prerelease": false,
"created_at": "2017-01-09T16:49:01Z",
"published_at": "2017-01-10T20:09:37Z",
"assets": [
],
"tarball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/tarball/v2.2.1.0-0.3.rc3",
"zipball_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/zipball/v2.2.1.0-0.3.rc3",
"body": "For official tarballs go to https://releases.ansible.com\n"
}
get the value of the key tarball_url
download the value of the key retrieved just above
In ansible code that would do
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- uri:
url: https://api.github.com/repos/ansible/ansible/releases/latest
return_content: true
register: json_reponse
- get_url:
url: "{{ json_reponse.json.tarball_url }}"
dest: ./ansible-latest.tar.gz
I let you adapt the proper parameters to answer your question :)

Answer 2

I am using the following recipe to download and extract latest watchexec binary for Linux from GitHub releases.
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- name: check latest watchexec
uri:
url: https://api.github.com/repos/watchexec/watchexec/releases/latest
return_content: true
register: watchexec_latest
- name: "installing watchexec {{ watchexec_latest.json.tag_name }}"
loop: "{{ watchexec_latest.json.assets }}"
when: "'x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.xz' in item.name"
unarchive:
remote_src: yes
src: "{{ item.browser_download_url }}"
dest: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/bin/"
keep_newer: yes
extra_opts:
- --strip=1
- --no-anchored
- watchexec
tar extra_opts explained here.
This still downloads the binary every time a playbook is called. As an improvement, it might be possible to use set_fact for caching node_id attribute that corresponds to the unpacked file.

Answer 3

Another approach is to use ansible github_release module to get the latest tag
example
- name: Get gogs latest tag
github_release:
user: gogs
repo: gogs
action: latest_release
register: gogs_latest
- name: Grab gogs latest binaries
unarchive:
src: "https://github.com/gogs/gogs/releases/download/{{ gogs_latest['tag'] }}/gogs_{{ gogs_latest['tag'] | regex_replace('^v','') }}_linux_amd64.zip"
dest: /usr/local/bin
remote_src: true
The regex part at the end is for replacing the v at the beginning of the tag since the format now on GitHub for gogs is gogs_0.12.3_linux_armv7.zip and latest tag includes a v

Answer 4

I got inspired and extended the play.
After downloading I add the version number to the binary and link to the program.
so I can check on the next run if the version is still up to date. Otherwise it is downloaded and linked again.
- hosts: localhost
become: false
vars:
org: watchexec
repo: watchexec
filename: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.xz
version: latest
project_url: https://api.github.com/repos/{{ org }}/{{ repo }}/releases
tasks:
- name: check {{ repo }} version
uri:
url: "{{ project_url }}/{{ version }}"
return_content: true
register: latest_version
- name: check if {{ repo }}-{{ version }} already there
stat:
path: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/bin/{{ repo }}-{{ latest_version.json.tag_name }}"
register: newestbinary
- name: download and link to version {{ version }}
block:
- name: create tempfile
tempfile:
state: directory
suffix: dwnld
register: tempfolder_1
- name: "installing {{ repo }} {{ latest_version.json.tag_name }}"
# idea from: https://stackoverflow.com/a/62672308/886659
loop: "{{ latest_version.json.assets }}"
when: "filename|string in item.name"
unarchive:
remote_src: yes
src: "{{ item.browser_download_url }}"
dest: "{{ tempfolder_1.path }}"
keep_newer: yes
extra_opts:
- --strip=1
- --no-anchored
- "{{ repo }}"
- name: command because no mv available
command: mv "{{ tempfolder_1.path }}/{{ repo }}" "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/bin/{{ repo }}-{{ latest_version.json.tag_name }}"
args:
creates: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/bin/{{ repo }}-{{ latest_version.json.tag_name }}"
- name: "link {{ repo }}-{{ latest_version.json.tag_name }} -> {{ repo }} "
file:
src: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/bin/{{ repo }}-{{ latest_version.json.tag_name }}"
dest: "{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.local/bin/{{ repo }}"
state: link
force: yes
when: not newestbinary.stat.exists
always:
- name: delete {{ tempfolder_1.path|default("tempfolder") }}
file:
path: "{{ tempfolder_1.path }}"
state: absent
when: tempfolder_1.path is defined
ignore_errors: true
# vim:ft=yaml.ansible:
here is the file on github

Answer 5

Download the latest release with the help of json_query.
Note: you might need to_json|from_json as a workaround for this issue.
- name: get the latest release details
uri:
url: https://api.github.com/repos/prometheus/node_exporter/releases/latest
method: GET
register: node_exp_release
delegate_to: localhost
- name: set the release facts
set_fact:
file_name: "{{ node_exp_latest.name }}"
download_url: "{{ node_exp_latest.browser_download_url }}"
vars:
node_exp_latest: "{{ node_exp_release.json|to_json|from_json|json_query('assets[?ends_with(name,`linux-amd64.tar.gz`)]')|first }}"
- name: download the latest release
get_url:
url: "{{ download_url }}"
dest: /tmp/

Answer 6

I had a similar situation but they didn't use releases, so I found this workaround - it feels more hacky than it should be, but it gets the latest tag and uses that in lieu of releases when they don't exist.
- name: set headers more location
set_fact:
headers_more_location: /srv/headers-more-nginx-module
- name: git clone headers-more-nginx-module
git:
repo: https://github.com/openresty/headers-more-nginx-module
dest: "{{ headers_more_location }}"
depth: 1
update: no
- name: get new tags from remote
command: "git fetch --tags"
args:
chdir: "{{ headers_more_location }}"
- name: get latest tag
command: "git rev-list --tags --max-count=1"
args:
chdir: "{{ headers_more_location }}"
register: tags_rev_list
- name: get latest tag name
command: "git describe --tags {{ tags_rev_list.stdout }}"
args:
chdir: "{{ headers_more_location }}"
register: latest_tag
- name: checkout the latest version
command: "git checkout {{ latest_tag.stdout }}"
args:
chdir: "{{ headers_more_location }}"

Answer 7

Needed to download the latest docker-compose release from github, so came up with the solution below. I know there are other ways to do this, because the latest release content that is returned also contains a direct download link for example. However, I found this solution quite elegant.
- name: Get all docker-compose releases
uri:
url: "https://api.github.com/repos/docker/compose/releases/latest"
return_content: yes
register: release
- name: Set latest docker-compose release
set_fact:
latest_version: "{{ release.json.tag_name }}"
- name: Install docker-compose
get_url:
url : "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/{{ latest_version }}/docker-compose-linux-{{ ansible_architecture }}"
dest: /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
mode: '755'