# Contributing to the network Linux System Role ## Where to start The first place to go is [Contribute](https://linux-system-roles.github.io/contribute.html). This has all of the common information that all role developers need: * Role structure and layout * Development tools - How to run tests and checks * Ansible recommended practices * Basic git and github information * How to create git commits and submit pull requests **Bugs and needed implementations** are listed on [Github Issues](https://github.com/linux-system-roles/network/issues). Issues labeled with [**help wanted**](https://github.com/linux-system-roles/network/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22help+wanted%22) are likely to be suitable for new contributors! **Code** is managed on [Github](https://github.com/linux-system-roles/network), using [Pull Requests](https://help.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-issues-and-pull-requests/about-pull-requests). ## Python Code The Python code needs to be **compatible with the Python versions supported by the role platform**. For example, see [meta](https://github.com/linux-system-roles/network/blob/main/meta/main.yml) for the platforms supported by the role. If the role provides Ansible modules (code in `library/` or `module_utils/`) - these run on the *managed* node, and typically[1] use the default system python: * EL6 - python 2.6 * EL7 - python 2.7 or python 3.6 in some cases * EL8 - python 3.6 * EL9 - python 3.9 If the role provides some other sort of Ansible plugin such as a filter, test, etc. - these run on the *control* node and typically use whatever version of python that Ansible uses, which in many cases is *not* the system python, and may be a modularity release such as python311. In general, it is a good idea to ensure the role python code works on all versions of python supported by `tox-lsr` from py36 on, and on py27 if the role supports EL7, and on py26 if the role supports EL6.[1] [1] Advanced users may set [ansible_python_interpreter](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/special_variables.html#term-ansible_python_interpreter) to use a non-system python on the managed node, so it is a good idea to ensure your code has broad python version compatibility, and do not assume your code will only ever be run with the default system python. ## Debugging network system role When using the `nm` provider, NetworkManager create a checkpoint and reverts the changes on failures. This makes it hard to debug the error. To disable this, set the Ansible variable `__network_debug_flags` to include the value `disable-checkpoints`. Also tests clean up by default in case there are failures. They should be tagged as `tests::cleanup` and can be skipped. To use both, run the test playbooks like this: ```bash ansible-playbook --skip-tags tests::cleanup \ -e "__network_debug_flags=disable-checkpoints" \ -i testhost, tests/playbooks/tests_802_1x.yml ``` ### NetworkManager Documentation [NM 1.0](https://lazka.github.io/pgi-docs/#NM-1.0), it contains a full explanation about the NetworkManager API. ### Integration tests with podman 1. Create `~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/containers/podman/` if this directory does not exist and `cd` into this directory. ```bash mkdir -p ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/containers/podman/ cd ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/containers/podman/ ``` 2. Clone the collection plugins for Ansible-Podman into the current directory. ```bash git clone https://github.com/containers/ansible-podman-collections.git . ``` 3. Change directory into the `tests` subdirectory. ```bash cd ~/network/tests ``` 4. Use podman with `-d` to run in the background (daemon). Use `c7` because `centos/systemd` is centos7. ```bash podman run --name lsr-ci-c7 --rm --privileged \ -v /sys/fs/cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup:ro \ -d registry.centos.org/centos/systemd ``` 5. Use `podman unshare` first to run "podman mount" in root mode, use `-vi` to run ansible as inventory in verbose mode, use `-c podman` to use the podman connection plugin. NOTE: Some of the tests do not work with podman - see `.github/run_test.sh` for the list of tests that do not work. ```bash podman unshare ansible-playbook -vi lsr-ci-c7, -c podman tests_provider_nm.yml ``` 6. NOTE that this leaves the container running in the background, to kill it: ```bash podman stop lsr-ci-c7 podman rm lsr-ci-c7 ``` ## Running CI Tests Locally ### Use tox-lsr with qemu The latest version of tox-lsr supports qemu testing. **Steps:** 1. If you are using RHEL or CentOS, enable the EPEL repository for your platform - 2. Use yum or dnf to install `standard-test-roles-inventory-qemu` * If for some reason dnf/yum do not work, just download the script from * copy to your `$PATH`, and make sure it is executable 3. Install tox * Use yum/dnf to install `python3-tox` - if that does not work, then use `pip install --user tox`, then make sure `~/.local/bin` is in your `$PATH` 4. Install tox-lsr ```bash pip install --user git+https://github.com/linux-system-roles/tox-lsr@main ``` 5. Download the config file to `~/.config/linux-system-roles.json` from 6. Assuming you are in a git clone of a role repo which has a tox.ini file - you can use e.g. ```bash tox -e qemu-ansible-core-2.14 -- --image-name centos-9 tests/tests_default.yml ``` There are many command line options and environment variables which can be used to control the behavior, and you can customize the testenv in tox.ini. See This method supports RHEL also - will download the latest image for a compose, and will set up the yum repos to point to internal composes. See for general development guidelines.