[GRASS-dev] [Anouncement] Ansible role for installing GRASS GIS with Python 2/3

[Panagiotis Mavrogiorgos]

# Anouncement

Hello everyone,

I am happy to announce the creation of an "Ansible role" that can be used to
compile GRASS GIS on Ubuntu 18.04, using either of Python 2 or Python 3.

## Concerns of getting started

IMHV, one of the factors that prevent people from getting involved with the
development, of a rather complex project, like GRASS GIS, is the difficulty to
get started.  The procedure usually involves:

- reading various wiki pages, sometimes even outdated ones
- identifying software dependencies
- often trial-and-error attempts to successfully compile GRASS GIS

Casual power-users with the potential to bring-in positive contributions,
might be overwhelmed by this.  Furthermore, this procedure has to be repeated
by each and everyone willing to get involved.

## Kickstarting a development environment

A user's level of expertise shouldn't matter in getting involved.  With this in
mind, the goal is to create a _single-command_, easy to use, automated tool.
This tool will kickstart a GRASS GIS development environment within minutes.

## About Ansible

Ansible is one of the tools used by devops for automating IT tasks.  These
tasks can be actions like:

- install this package
- create this user
- rename this file
- start this service
- run this command
- etc

Ansible covers pretty much anything you can do with a computer.  In layman
terms, an "ansible role" is nothing more than a list of tasks to be executed.

## Ansible role to compile GRASS GIS

With the execution of a single command, this role will:

- install dependencies required for compiling and running GRASS GIS
- checkout the source code
- create a virtualenv and install all python dependencies
- compile GRASS GIS

The only requirements are an Ubuntu 18.04 installation and internet connection.

## Your support

Would you have some spare time and a VM available, I would be happy if you give
it a try. Even more, if you let me know what you think about it.

I am by no means a GRASS GIS expert, and I certainly have tested only a small
part of GRASS GIS' functionality.  Thus, there will be things not working as
expected. Some dependency might be missing or the documentation might not be
clear enough.

The code is hosted on github and you can find instructions how to use the role
on the README file.  No ansible knowledge is required and if you can't follow
the instructions on the first time you read them, then this is a bug!

Let me know :)

## A note about security

Dislaimer: Downloading and executing an ansible role entails all the dangers of
executing a random script from the internet. So all the usual warnings are in
order. Best to try this on a throwaway VM

Thank you and looking forward to hear from you

Panagiotis
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