# Where do I start

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [March 5, 2012, 11:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322 "2012-03-05T11:08:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Gerhardus\_Geldenhuis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gerhardus\_Geldenhuis](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Gerhardus_Geldenhuis)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 11:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322/1 "2012-03-05T11:08:21Z")

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Hi  
I think ansible is perfectly suited for a project that I am doing… where do I start?  
What do I need to download/install? I am assuming ssh key infrastructure needs to be in place already?

Regards

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**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322/2 "2012-03-05T13:05:39Z")

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We’ll have RPM and DEB versions later I’m sure.

To install for now

1. install git
2. git clone [git@github.com](mailto:git@github.com):mpdehaan/ansible.git
3. cd ansible
4. make install

Alternatively, you could run it from a local checkout, but you’ll need to pass in the library path, include path, and set PYTHONPATH.  
The only thing you will miss is the manages won’t be found by “man”, but they can be read on the github site.

Once I tag a release you will also be able to download a tar ball from github versus cloning with git. This will also make sure you  
don’t pick up a version that has some feature that is in progress.

As for SSH infrastructure, either:

(A) make sure your server’s keys is in /root/.ssh/authorized\_keys on the various nodes  
(B) Use a common root password (not recommended!) with “-k” (ask pass)

When using SSH keys, use either ssh agent or -k to handle your SSH key password. ssh-agent is somewhat better because  
it will not prompt you for passwords between runs of ansible.

I’ll warn you that Ansible is still just a week or so old, so there may be some bugs, however, testing is very welcome and this is exactly what we need now.

I suspect command line option names are pretty stable at this point, but can’t make any guarantees.

I’ll announce any changes on the list.

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**Author:** ![Seth\_Vidal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Seth\_Vidal](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Seth_Vidal)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322/3 "2012-03-05T17:25:31Z")

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I just sent a pull request with a spec file and a changes to make the  
following work just fine:

python setup.py sdist  
rpmbuild -ta dist/ansible-1.0.tar.gz

-sv

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**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/where-do-i-start/11322/4 "2012-03-05T17:43:53Z")

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Awesome, thanks!

I’ll probably add a “make rpms” shortcut around this.

(Until then, everyone should do a “make docs” before you run setup.py sdist)

If others want to do something similar to Debian/Ubuntu package builds, that would be cool too.

–Michael