# Running ansible in an unrelated virtualenv **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [July 16, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132 "2013-07-16T11:20:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/1 "2013-07-16T11:20:12Z")
Hi, A Python project of mine uses virtualenv to isolate packages. I want to use Ansible to provision a Vagrant box for testing. However, when I run Vagrant it fails with this error: [default] Running provisioner: ansible… File “/usr/bin/ansible-playbook”, line 24, in import ansible.playbook ImportError: No module named ansible.playbook If I deactivate the virtualenv it runs fine. I am now running “(deactivate; vagrant up)” but that is not ideal. Anyone know of a better solution? Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@C\_Morgan\_Hamill](https://forum.ansible.com/u/C_Morgan_Hamill)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/2 "2013-07-16T15:38:31Z")
Excerpts from Joost Cassee's message of 2013-07-16 07:20:12 -0400: > Hi, > > A Python project of mine uses virtualenv to isolate packages. I want to use > Ansible to provision a Vagrant box for testing. However, when I run Vagrant > it fails with this error: > > [default] Running provisioner: ansible... >   File "/usr/bin/ansible-playbook", line 24, in \ >     import ansible.playbook > ImportError: No module named ansible.playbook > > If I deactivate the virtualenv it runs fine. I am now running "(deactivate; > vagrant up)" but that is not ideal. Anyone know of a better solution? Sounds to me like you don't have ansible installed in the virtualenv. You could either `pip install ansible` form within the virtualenv, or create the virtualenv with access to site packages. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/3 "2013-07-16T21:25:14Z")
Indeed, I installed Ansible system-wide. If I also install it in the virtualenv, I get this error: [default] Running provisioner: ansible... PLAY [vagrant] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* GATHERING FACTS \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* fatal: [127.0.0.1] =\> {'msg': "FAILED: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl for device')", 'failed': True} Which is a much weirder error that I do not know how to debug any further. It is an annoying property of virtualenv that it messes with Python even for site-wide installed applications... Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Bulzak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Bulzak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sebastian_Bulzak)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/4 "2013-08-29T20:03:47Z")
Did you manage to fix this error? I don’t have virtualenv, but I get the same failure during “GATHERING FACTS” before the start of any play task. Regards, S ---
**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Bulzak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7993a0/32.png) [@Sebastian\_Bulzak](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Sebastian_Bulzak)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/5 "2013-08-29T23:32:31Z")
It’s a private key issue on first connection. You have to call ansible with --private-key=~/.vagrant.d/insecure\_private\_key ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/6 "2013-08-30T00:04:13Z")
Adding the private key is something I forget once in a while too. But I have seen the ioctl error a few times even when I specify the key. I have had more luck with just adding ansible to my requirements.txt file. Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/7 "2013-09-11T12:39:29Z")
Hi, Sorry to drag this thread up again, but I now have difficulty running Ansible _in_ a virtualenv… See issue 4083 [1]. My Python projects use virtualenv with to isolate the environment. I cannot run the system Ansible installation because tries to pick up packages from the virtualenv environment and I cannot use a local Ansible installation because it tries to pick up modules from the system locations. I would really love Ansible to make a choice between being a regular Python package or being a system application. The latter for example by changing the hashbang in the main ansible script to the system Python executable (i.e. not /usr/bin/env python). Regards, Joost [1] [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/4083](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/4083) Regards, Joost Excerpts from Joost Cassee’s message of 2013-07-16 07:20:12 -0400: > Hi, > > A Python project of mine uses virtualenv to isolate packages. I want to use > Ansible to provision a Vagrant box for testing. However, when I run Vagrant > it fails with this error: > > [default] Running provisioner: ansible… > File “/usr/bin/ansible-playbook”, line 24, in > import ansible.playbook > ImportError: No module named ansible.playbook > > If I deactivate the virtualenv it runs fine. I am now running “(deactivate; > vagrant up)” but that is not ideal. Anyone know of a better solution? Sounds to me like you don’t have ansible installed in the virtualenv. You could either `pip install ansible` form within the virtualenv, or create the virtualenv with access to site packages. ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/8 "2013-09-11T12:46:49Z")
Please read the web documentation on ansible\_python\_interpreter. If you’re having problems setting it, please share where you’ve actually set that information in your inventory, as well as your playbook, so we can tell what you are doing. ansible\_python\_interpreter is a required mechanism because on some operating systems python may be in /usr/bin/python26 and relying on /usr/bin/env clearly doesn’t work, and this allows you to manage such a system (say a modified Arch) and CentOS at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 1:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/9 "2013-09-11T13:06:45Z")
Hi Michael, The content of the testcase I attached to the ticket contains the following files: hosts: [group] host ansible\_python\_interpreter=bin/python playbook.iml: ---
**Author:** ![Cristobal\_Rosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Cristobal\_Rosa](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Cristobal_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/10 "2013-09-11T14:58:06Z")
Hi Joost, I just checked what you said, and it seem to work properly: (testansible)devel@devel:~/projects/virtualenvs/testansible$ ansible-playbook -i hostfile --connection=local playbook.yml PLAY [192.168.1.45] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* TASK: [debug msg=“{{ansible\_python\_interpreter}}”] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* ok: [192.168.1.45] =\> {“msg”: “/home/devel/projects/virtualenvs/testansible/bin/python”} TASK: [command echo “hi”] \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* changed: [192.168.1.45] PLAY RECAP \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\* 192.168.1.45 : ok=2 changed=1 unreachable=0 failed=0 my hostfile: (testansible)devel@devel:~/projects/virtualenvs/testansible$ cat hostfile xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ansible\_python\_interpreter=/home/devel/projects/virtualenvs/testansible/bin/python and the playbook: (testansible)devel@devel:~/projects/virtualenvs/testansible$ cat playbook.yml ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/11 "2013-09-11T21:48:30Z")
Hi Christobal, Did you try to use a module that has an external dependency instead of the command module, like the ec2 one? Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Cristobal\_Rosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Cristobal\_Rosa](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Cristobal_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/12 "2013-09-12T07:17:30Z")
Hi Joost, sorry I couldn’t check this case, I only tested it using the command module. BR, Cristóbal ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/13 "2013-09-12T17:45:06Z")
It will work the same for both. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 7:30am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/14 "2013-09-13T07:30:08Z")
What is happening is that I am confusing the code that is running the playbook and the code that is running on the remote host. I see now that it makes perfect sense to separate them. The problem in my head is that some actions operate on remote systems, but only make sense in a local\_action, for example the ec2 modules. A local\_actions is still a connection to the local system, so it does not run in the same environment as the playbook-running code. So in my case I want to set ansible\_python\_interpreter for 127.0.0.1 to the Python executable from my virtual environment. I tried this inventory file: 127.0.0.1 ansible\_python\_interpreter=VIRTUALENV/bin/python [groups] host And that works! Thanks for your help, Cristobal and Michael! Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Tin\_Tvrtkovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@Tin\_Tvrtkovic](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tin_Tvrtkovic)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/15 "2013-09-13T19:41:02Z")
Huh, wierd. If I’m understanding correctly, you have an issue on the master machine. You’ve installed Ansible globally, but when you have a virtualenv activated it doesn’t work? There are better ways than installing Ansible inside the virtualenv or creating a virtualenv with --system-site-packages (bad idea anyway). How exactly did you install Ansible globally? If I misunderstood something, ignore. 🙂 Also, as I understand it ansible\_python\_interpreter sets the remote Python interpreter, not the master one. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/16 "2013-09-13T22:22:36Z")
Hi Tin, If I install Ansible only in a virtualenv (and not globally), the modules are simply not found. My problem was that local\_action tasks are still "remote", delegated to localhost. So the remote Python interpreter is used. Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/17 "2013-09-13T22:59:37Z")
I would suggest just installing Ansible normally. Most people use packages. I think it’s kind of a (no offense implied) symptom of Python developers to be like “This is Python, I know this!” and then make it more complicated 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 11:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/18 "2013-09-13T23:06:49Z")
It's no problem, Morgan Hamill suggested in a reply to my original post that installing Ansible in virtualenv was supported so that prompted me to go down this path. The real problem, as I see it, is that Ansible cannot run if you happen to be inside of a virtualenv. That is unexpected for a system-installed package. (A user should not have to understand what language Ansible was written in.) Regards, Joost ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 11:14pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/19 "2013-09-13T23:14:18Z")
“The real problem, as I see it, is that Ansible cannot run if you happen to be inside of a virtualenv.” I’m not positive that’s true (ansible\_python\_interpreter), I just believe trying is a very unnecessary complication. “That is unexpected for a system-installed package. (A user should not have to understand what language Ansible was written in.)” I think for a system installed package you’d be less likely to even look to see what language it was written in, ergo you would be unlikely to think to use virtualenv. In other words, I think you mean “expected” vs “unexpected”, or at least, that’s the meaning I would take. ---
**Author:** ![Joost\_Cassee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Joost\_Cassee](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Joost_Cassee)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132/20 "2013-09-13T23:20:14Z")
> "The real problem, as I see it, is that Ansible cannot run if you > happen to be inside of a virtualenv." > > I'm not positive that's true (ansible\_python\_interpreter), I just believe > trying is a very unnecessary complication. Well, Ansible does not run at all, because the hashbang on the main ansible script says "#!/usr/bin/env python" and so it picks up the interpreter of the virtualenv and cannot even find the ansible.runner package. > "That is unexpected for a > system-installed package. (A user should not have to understand what > language Ansible was written in.)" > > I think for a system installed package you'd be less likely to even look to > see what language it was written in, ergo you would be unlikely to think to > use virtualenv. I agree that using virtualenv for Ansible "on purpose" is strange. But it is perfectly reasonable to use Ansible as a tool for a project that is developed in a virtualenv. Why would running ansible be any different than running, say, grep? [Next page](https://forum.ansible.com/t/running-ansible-in-an-unrelated-virtualenv/13132.md?page=2)