# Release announcement: Ansible Community Package 9.0.0b1 (Pre-Release)

Hello everyone,

We're happy to announce the Beta release of Ansible 9.0.0b1!

This pre-release version contains the latest version of ansible-core
2.16 and includes a curated set of Ansible collections that provides a
vast number of modules and plugins.

ansible-core is a required dependency, not contained within the
ansible packages.

How to get it?
------------------

This release is available on PyPI and can be installed with pip:

`$ python3 -m pip install ansible==9.0.0b1 --user`

The source and the wheel for this release can be found here:

Release tarball:

https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/72/fd/5b6d2432505612d91188d6eb71607fc8642e0063fe0f09a88c256eeec539/ansible-9.0.0b1.tar.gz

SHA256:

47fc6de9bc28b90c4aee8b7e1675bad3bdc6dd810b2eddff03df8b0f5071057d

Wheel package:

https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/48/cc/f15d2a0cf8144ca657d3cd586161cf95c539ffce0b385f986e54a5bd7bfc/ansible-9.0.0b1-py3-none-any.whl

SHA256:

899c2be2530e692db12d47870aa5a1cac6edb4f008ad43984cb1b7651df8e08e

Some important details
-------------------------------

Python wheels are available for both Ansible 9.0.0b1 and ansible-core 2.16.

In addition, Ansible 9 does not install some unnecessary files from
the included Ansible collections such as tests or hidden files and
directories. This further improves installation performance and
reduces the size on disk. These files are still available in the
source tarball if needed.

Collections which have opted-in to being a part of the Ansible 9
unified changelog will have an entry on this page:

https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/9/CHANGELOG-v9.rst

For collections which have not opted-in to the unified changelog, you
may find more information on

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections

or the collection source repository. For example, the community.crypto
collection is available at

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/community/crypto/index.html
and you can find a link to the source repository under the
"Repository(Sources)" button.

The changelog for ansible-core 2.16 installed by this release of
Ansible 9 can be found here:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/blob/v2.16.0/changelogs/CHANGELOG-v2.16.rst

What's the schedule for new Ansible releases after 9.0.0b1?
---------------------------------------------------------

The next release roadmap can be found at

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/roadmap/ansible_roadmap_index.html

Subscribe to the Bullhorn for all future release dates, announcements,
and Ansible contributor community news.

Visit this link to subscribe:

https://bit.ly/subscribe-bullhorn

You can find all past Bullhorn issues on the official wiki page:

https://github.com/ansible/community/wiki/News#the-bullhorn

Join the new Ansible Community Forum to follow along and participate
in all the discussions and release related discussions and
announcements. Feel free to share your thoughts, ideas and concerns
there.

Register here to join the Ansible Forum:

https://forum.ansible.com

Porting Help
-----------------

A unified porting guide for collections that have opted-in is available here:

https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/devel/porting_guides/porting_guide_9.html

Getting collection updates from Ansible 9 with older releases of ansible-core
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ansible 9 includes ansible-core 2.16 Based on your requirements, you
can get collection updates as they ship in the Ansible "batteries
included" package while continuing to use older versions of
ansible-core.

An ansible-galaxy requirements file based on the collections from
Ansible 9 has been made available for this use case:

https://github.com/ansible-community/ansible-build-data/blob/main/9/galaxy-requirements.yaml

After you download the requirements file, the collections can be
installed by running this command:

"ansible-galaxy collection install -r galaxy-requirements.yaml"

Special Thanks
------------------

We would like to give a shoutout with a big THANK YOU to felixfontein for making this release happen!

On behalf of the Ansible community, thank you and happy automating!

Cheers
Ansible Community Team