# How to develop and run collection locally **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Tags:** collections\ **Created:** [October 30, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033 "2023-10-30T14:01:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ryan.ernst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de053/32.png) [@ryan.ernst](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ryan.ernst)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/1 "2023-10-30T14:01:26Z")
I am pretty new to Ansible and hope to use it to automate deployment on hardware that my company manages. I have created a collection for us to bundle all of our roles into, as it seems this is the modern way to use Ansible. I have tested them using Molecule and everything is working well, except for testing systemd services. Rather than try to find some workaround for getting systemd to work in Docker, I have been trying to test against some cheap EC2 instances. The friction I am having now, though, is the development loop: - Install my collection - Test / Run Playbook using role from collection - Inevitably find some issue - Fix Issue or add debug task - **Install collection again – to pick up changes** - Test / Run playbook again **This is working, but the fact that I have to force-install my collection every time I want to test my role is frustrating.** Am I missing some setup trick or tool that makes this development loop simpler? Ideally, I could just make changes in my collection and then test without installing it again. I will likely resort to using `make` to streamline this loop, but I figured I would ask here first if there is something I can try that is native to ansible. ---
**Author:** ![chris](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/chris/32/293_2.png) [@chris](https://forum.ansible.com/u/chris)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 3:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/2 "2023-10-30T15:52:58Z")
I’m doing this for roles but I expect something like it would work for collections? I have `ansible-galaxy` install roles into `galaxy/roles` but for development I symlink `roles/role_name` to the local git repo for that role so when I run the playbook it always uses the latest local version of the role. I’ve even got a very simple `update.sh` Bash script in the `roles` directory I can run to update all the symlinked roles: ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash dirs=$(ls | grep -v ${0}) for d in ${dirs}; do if [[-d ${d}]] then cd ${d} || exit git pull || exit cd - || exit fi done ``` ---
**Author:** ![ptn](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/ptn/32/481_2.png) [@ptn](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ptn)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/3 "2023-10-30T19:19:42Z")
Hi, Molecule should let you use [ec2 instances](https://github.com/ansible-community/molecule-plugins/blob/main/src/molecule_plugins/ec2/driver.py). Also, similar to how @chris does, I happen to live test / debug my roles from source without having to commit / push / reinstall on every modification when I need to run tests directly on intended targets, often to diff with current configuration as it’s easier in most cases. What I do is either work on local path I previously installed role with `ansible-galaxy`, then when I am done, just rsync modifications to role repo, or work directly in repo, changing role install paths using `ANSIBLE_ROLES_PATH` envvar. Using a symlink would be a close one 🙂. ---
**Author:** ![felixfontein](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/felixfontein/32/7530_2.png) [@felixfontein](https://forum.ansible.com/u/felixfontein)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2023, 7:47pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/4 "2023-10-30T19:47:28Z")
I have all the collections I work on checked out in a `ansible_collections` directory structure that’s both part of my work directory (where all my git projects are checked out) and my `ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH`. Basically what is described here: [How to test a collection PR — Ansible Documentation](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/community/collection_contributors/collection_test_pr_locally.html) This allows me to directly use the collections I am working on in ansible-core without having to install them. It does mean though that I have to manually take care of the collection’s dependencies. For the collections I work on this isn’t a problem, most don’t have dependencies at all, or these are also collections I (sometimes) work on, so I have them checked out anyway. Of course you can also install some of the dependencies manually with `ansible-galaxy collection install` somewhere else. One alternative to the above is to check out the collection `foo.bar` to in a directory `collections/ansible_collections/foo/bar` relative to your playbook directory. Then you can modify the collection and directly use them in your playbooks. (You could of course also keep that collection in this directory structure in the same git repo as your playbooks. Whether that makes sense depends on your situation…) ---
**Author:** ![ryan.ernst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de053/32.png) [@ryan.ernst](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ryan.ernst)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/5 "2023-10-31T02:50:42Z")
Oh! Somehow I missed that EC2 plugin for Molecule. I will definitely check this out. Thanks for mentioning it! I was following the [Using Docker Containers](https://ansible.readthedocs.io/projects/molecule/docker/) guide, and because it just did everything in playbooks, I didn’t think to check out what plugins were available. ---
**Author:** ![ryan.ernst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de053/32.png) [@ryan.ernst](https://forum.ansible.com/u/ryan.ernst)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2023, 2:53am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-develop-and-run-collection-locally/2033/6 "2023-10-31T02:53:38Z")
This is great and makes sense. I am going to give it a shot! > One alternative to the above is to check out the collection `foo.bar` to in a directory collections/ansible\_collections/foo/bar` relative to your playbook directory. Then you can modify the collection and directly use them in your playbooks. (You could of course also keep that collection in this directory structure in the same git repo as your playbooks. Whether that makes sense depends on your situation…) This is roughly what I am doing now; I think I was missing the `ANSIBLE_COLLECTIONS_PATH ` part.