Should you wish to get more involved -- whether in terms of just asking a question, helping other users, introducing new people to Ansible, or helping with the software or documentation, we welcome your contributions to the project.
Ansible questions are best asked on the `Ansible Google Group Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-project>`_.
This is a very large high-traffic list for answering questions and sharing tips
and tricks. Anyone can join, and email delivery is optional if you just want to read the group online. To cut down on spam, your first post is moderated, though posts are approved quickly.
Please be sure to share any relevant commands you ran, output, and detail, indicate the version of Ansible you are using when asking a question.
Where needed, link to gists or github repos to show examples, rather than sending attachments to the list.
We recommend using Google search to see if a topic has been answered recently, but comments found in older threads may no longer apply, depending on the topic.
Before you post, be sure you are running the latest stable version of Ansible. You can check this by comparing the output of 'ansible --version' with the version indicated on `PyPi <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/ansible>`.
Alternatively, you can also join our IRC channel - #ansible on irc.freenode.net. It's a very high traffic channel as well, if you don't get an answer you like, please stop by our mailing list, which is more likely
to get attention of core developers since it's asynchronous.
I'd Like To Keep Up With Release Announcements
----------------------------------------------
Release announcements are posted to ansible-project, though if you don't want to keep up with the very active list, you can join the `Ansible Announce Mailing List <http://groups.google.com/group/ansible-announce>`_
This is a low-traffic read-only list, where we'll share release announcements and occasionally links to major Ansible Events around the world.
I'd Like To Help Share and Promote Ansible
------------------------------------------
You can help share Ansible with others by telling friends and colleagues, writing a blog post,
or presenting at user groups (like DevOps groups or the local LUG).
You are also welcome to share slides on speakerdeck, sign up for a free account and tag it “Ansible”. On Twitter,
you can also share things with #ansible and may wish to `follow us <https://twitter.com/ansible>`_.
I'd Like To Help Ansible Move Faster
------------------------------------
If you're a developer, one of the most valuable things you can do is look at the github issues list and help fix bugs. We almost always prioritize bug fixing over
feature development, so clearing bugs out of the way is one of the best things you can do.
If you're not a developer, helping test pull requests for bug fixes and features is still immensely valuable. You can do this by checking out ansible, making a test
branch off the main one, merging a GitHub issue, testing, and then commenting on that particular issue on GitHub.
Ansible practices responsible disclosure - if this is a security related bug, email `security@ansible.com <mailto:security@ansible.com>`_ instead of filing a ticket or posting to the Google Group and you will receive a prompt response.
MODULE related bugs however should go to `ansible-modules-core <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-core>`_ or `ansible-modules-extras <https://github.com/ansible/ansible-modules-extras>`_ based on the classification of the module. This is listed on the bottom of the docs page for any module.
When filing a bug, please use the `issue template <https://github.com/ansible/ansible/raw/devel/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md>`_ to provide all relevant information, regardless of what repo you are filing a ticket against.
Knowing your ansible version and the exact commands you are running, and what you expect, saves time and helps us help everyone with their issues
more quickly.
Do not use the issue tracker for "how do I do this" type questions. These are great candidates
for IRC or the mailing list instead where things are likely to be more of a discussion.
To be respectful of reviewers time and allow us to help everyone efficiently, please
provide minimal well-reduced and well-commented examples versus sharing your entire production
playbook. Include playbook snippets and output where possible.
When sharing YAML in playbooks, formatting can be preserved by using `code blocks <https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown#fenced-code-blocks>`_.
For multiple-file content, we encourage use of gist.github.com. Online pastebin content can expire, so it's nice to have things around for a longer term if they
are referenced in a ticket.
If you are not sure if something is a bug yet, you are welcome to ask about something on
the mailing list or IRC first.
As we are a very high volume project, if you determine that
you do have a bug, please be sure to open the issue yourself to ensure we have a record of
it. Don’t rely on someone else in the community to file the bug report for you.
It may take some time to get to your report, see our information about priority flags below.
I'd Like To Help With Documentation
-----------------------------------
Ansible documentation is a community project too!
If you would like to help with the
documentation, whether correcting a typo or improving a section, or maybe even
documenting a new feature, submit a github pull request to the code that
lives in the “docsite/rst” subdirectory of the project for most pages, and there is an "Edit on GitHub"
Module documentation is generated from a DOCUMENTATION structure embedded in the source code of each module, which is in either the ansible-modules-core or ansible-modules-extra repos on github, depending on the module. Information about this is always listed on the bottom of the web documentation for each module.
`Ansible Lockdown List <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ansible-lockdown>`_ is for all things related to Ansible Lockdown projects, including DISA STIG automation and CIS Benchmarks.
To subscribe to a group from a non-google account, you can send an email to the subscription address requesting the subscription. For example: ansible-devel+subscribe@googlegroups.com
The Ansible community holds regular IRC meetings on various topics, and anyone who is interested is invited to
participate. For more information about Ansible meetings, consult the [Ansible community meeting page](https://github.com/ansible/community/blob/master/MEETINGS.md).
