Hi,
some of you might be familiar with the Git server Forgejo (https://forgejo.org) (or the origin project Gitea). In case you didn’t know, there is a “Package Registry” feature integrated that allows hosting for build artifacts directly within Forgejo. Currently this allows for various different package types.
Basically it is a small Nexus/Artifactory/etc. directly in the git server.
I am proposing code changes to add Ansible Collections as a new supported package type and implemented that in Forgejo (https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/8537).
Currently there is a roadblock in the process, because the Forgejo maintainers are not experienced with Ansible and need some more outside perspective to see if the feature works.
So, if you would be interested in this feature, I would appreciate a bit of help testing this. There are some links in the pull requests with a testing instance.
A few points I have been asked repeatedly:
- Q: Why not just use the collections from git directly?
A: I don’t like the way the versioning works from git. It kinda replaces the versioning in galaxy.yml and only uses the commit information. Publishing proper collections forces you to work cleaner. - Q: Why not use Ansible Galaxy / Galaxy-NG?
A: I like self-hosting my stuff. - Q: Why not use some existing solution like Nexus, Artifactory, ProGet or Pulp?
A: Nexus and ProGet don’t support Ansible Collections, Pulp is either a monster (if running in full Galaxy mode) or a management nightmare, Artifactory is non-free, neither in the sense of freedom nor free beer.