Exorcise Python-2.6

changelogs/fragments/drop-python-2.6-controller.yaml

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+major_changes:
+- Support for running an Ansible controller with Python 2.6 has been dropped.
+  You can still manage machines which use Python-2.6 but you will have to
+  manage them from a machine which has Python-2.7 or Python-3.5 or greater
+  installed.

docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/developing_python_3.rst

@@ -30,13 +30,15 @@ controller-side section.
 Minimum Version of Python-3.x and Python-2.x
 --------------------------------------------
 
-In both controller side and module code, we support Python-3.5 or greater and Python-2.6 or
+On the controller we support Python-3.5 or greater and Python-2.7 or greater.  Module-side, we
-greater.  Python-3.5 was chosen as a minimum because it is the earliest Python-3 version
+support Python-3.5 or greater and Python-2.6 or greater.
-adopted as the default Python by a Long Term Support (LTS) Linux distribution (in this case, Ubuntu-16.04).
-Previous LTS Linux distributions shipped with a Python-2 version which users can rely upon instead of the 
-Python-3 version.
 
-For Python-2, the default is for modules to run on at least Python-2.6.  This allows
+Python-3.5 was chosen as a minimum because it is the earliest Python-3 version adopted as the
+default Python by a Long Term Support (LTS) Linux distribution (in this case, Ubuntu-16.04).
+Previous LTS Linux distributions shipped with a Python-2 version which users can rely upon instead
+of the Python-3 version.
+
+For Python 2, the default is for modules to run on at least Python-2.6.  This allows
 users with older distributions that are stuck on Python-2.6 to manage their
 machines.  Modules are allowed to drop support for Python-2.6 when one of
 their dependent libraries requires a higher version of Python.  This is not an

docs/docsite/rst/dev_guide/testing_units_modules.rst

@@ -531,6 +531,12 @@ A helpful development approach to this should be to ensure that all of the tests
 run under Python 2.6 and that each assertion in the test cases has been checked to work by breaking
 the code in Ansible to trigger that failure.
 
+.. warn:: Maintain Python-2.6 compatibility
+
+    Please remember that modules need to maintain compatibility with Python-2.6 so the unittests for
+    modules should also be compatible with Python-2.6.
+
+
 .. seealso::
 
    :doc:`testing_units`

docs/docsite/rst/installation_guide/intro_installation.rst

@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ information about running from source.  It's not necessary to install the progra
 Control Machine Requirements
 ````````````````````````````
 
-Currently Ansible can be run from any machine with Python 2 (versions 2.6 or 2.7) or Python 3 (versions 3.5 and higher) installed (Windows isn't supported for the control machine).
+Currently Ansible can be run from any machine with Python 2 (version 2.7) or Python 3 (versions 3.5 and higher) installed (Windows isn't supported for the control machine).
 
 This includes Red Hat, Debian, CentOS, macOS, any of the BSDs, and so on.
 

docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_2.7.rst

@@ -14,6 +14,14 @@ This document is part of a collection on porting. The complete list of porting g
 
 .. contents:: Topics
 
+Python Compatibility
+====================
+
+Ansible has dropped compatibility with Python-2.6 on the controller (The host where :command:`/usr/bin/ansible`
+or :command:`/usr/bin/ansible-playbook` is run).  Modules shipped with Ansible can still be used to
+manage hosts which only have Python-2.6.  You just need to have a host with Python-2.7 or Python-3.5
+or greater to manage those hosts from.
+
 Playbook
 ========
 

docs/docsite/rst/user_guide/windows_winrm.rst

@@ -685,8 +685,8 @@ would an IPv4 address or hostname::
 
 
 .. Note:: The ipaddress library is only included by default in Python 3.x. To
-    use IPv6 addresses in Python 2.6 and 2.7, make sure to run
+    use IPv6 addresses in Python 2.7, make sure to run ``pip install ipaddress`` which installs
-    ``pip install ipaddress`` which installs a backported package.
+    a backported package.
 
 HTTPS Certificate Validation
 ````````````````````````````