Ansible - Does easy_install module deprecated?

Question

I'm provisioning a Vagrant box (ubuntu/trusty64) with Ansible.

When executing the following playbook:

---
- hosts: all
  tasks:
    - name: install pip
      easy_install:
        name: pip
        state: present

    - name: install gunicorn and flask
      pip: name={{ item }}
      with_items:
         - gunicorn
         - flask

I'm receiving the error below:

Failed to find required executable easy_install in paths

Searching for a solution I found this stackoverflow thread which point on the fact that using easy_install is outdated.

I haven't found any hints in the Ansible easy_install docs.

Any help will be appreciated.

My Vagrantfile:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/trusty64"
  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
  config.vm.provision :ansible do |ansible|
    ansible.playbook = "playbook.yml"
  end
end

Running with:

Ansible 2.7.10.

Vagrant 2.0.2.

Full Stacktrace of the error mentioned:

TASK [install pip]

fatal: [default]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Failed to find required executable easy_install in paths: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"} to retry, use: --limit @/home/workspaces/python_flask/playbook.retry

PLAY RECAP

easy_install is simply not installed on your base vagrant box. — Zeitounator
... or not found in the configured path. Although its an outdated method, the module still exists. If you have a recent box with python already installed, there are lot of chances pip is already there and you can skip your first task. — Zeitounator
@Zeitounator, you're correct, it is not part of the core modules - my bad. Can you post your comments as an answer and also mention this fact for others to see? — RtmY

Zeitounator Zeitounator · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-12T17:41:31

Simply transforming my comment as an answer.

easy_install is simply not installed on your base vagrant box or not found in the configured path. Although it's an outdated method to install python packages, the module still exists.

If you install easy_install on your base vagrant box (either by rebuilding it or while provisioning with ansible as an apt task), the error will go away.

Meanwhile, if you have a recent box with python already installed (which seems to be the case), there are lots of chances pip is already there and you can skip your first task.

Ansible - Does easy_install module deprecated?

1 Answers