Ansible evolves quickly, and we want to encourage people to be looking at new versions, understaning the new features, and getting the latest corrections to the documentation. Often when looking at module documentation you'll see a "new option added in 1.8" and say "Hey, I really need to consider 1.8" that you would not get exploring the 1.4 documentation -- and as a result, we'd probably get a lot of bug tickets against an old release we are not maintaining too :)
The documentation is also a great way to communicate with users that are not on this list, with things like Ansible Fest, being able to share things like Ansible Galaxy coming out, the preview of the O'Reilly book, and so on. These are very important things to us. Right now, the mailing list has about 4000 subscribers, but we have hundreds of thousands (if not more) Ansible users. The docs are our way of communicating with those folks. If you need offline module documentation, you are welcome to use "ansible-doc" to read the module documentation, which can be used offline. "man ansible-doc" for details. You can also build a snapshot of the HTML docs for local consumption on restricted networks by "make webdocs" from a source checkout after installing python-sphinx. On Thu, Jan 8, 2015 at 4:34 AM, Stuart Budd <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for the replies. > > I think that the lack of PDF documentation is a bit disappointing and lets > does a good product. > I can not really recommend the client goes with this product and then has > to produce their own offline PDF documents. I do not think that the idea > will fly at all well, especially when they are paying for the product. > > Thanks for the replies though. > > > > > On Wednesday, 7 January 2015 22:16:15 UTC, Tom Bamford wrote: >> >> Personally I find Michael's explanation very reasonable, but admittedly I >> have absolutely no use for PDF documentation. I'm certainly not going to >> print it out. >> >> If your motivation is to have offline documentation, why not simply build >> it yourself? (see the Makefile) >> >> >> On 7 January 2015 at 23:36, Stuart Budd <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Thank you Mat >>> >>> After reading the referenced post I feel that the reasoning why there >>> are no PDF versions of the documentation is more of an excuse really rather >>> than a justification. >>> >>> There is certainly a case for online documentation. >>> There is also a case for PDF versions. >>> Everyone else manages to provide PDF versions and really it is the >>> professional thing to do. >>> >>> Other organisations manage to provide PDF versions for operating >>> systems. This is an application. It is far less complex than an OS. >>> All software changes. To not provide adequate documentation and use the >>> fact that there are ongoing changes is not really very good in my opinion. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wednesday, 7 January 2015 21:03:02 UTC, Matt Martz wrote: >>>> >>>> You may want to see the explanation at https://github.com/ansible/ >>>> ansible/pull/8906#issuecomment-54889577 >>>> >>>> On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 2:47 PM, Stuart Budd <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Why does Ansible not provide documentation in PDF format? >>>>> >>>>> Other software providers provide manage to provide PDF versions. >>>>> Red Hat manages to provide PDF versions of their documentation and the >>>>> Linux OS is not static and certainly more complex than Ansible. >>>>> Oracle provides PDF versions of their products documentation. >>>>> CFEngine provides PDF versions of their product documentation. >>>>> >>>>> The vast majority of software providers manage to provide PDF versions >>>>> of their software products. >>>>> I can not think of any other software provider that does not provide >>>>> PDF versions of documentation. >>>>> >>>>> The Ansible Tower software has a PDF version of the documentation. >>>>> That is not static. >>>>> >>>>> I feel that the reason provided of "changes are constant" is not a >>>>> real reason. >>>>> >>>>> The online documentation is only available online and therefore >>>>> somewhat limited. >>>>> The providing of PDF versions of documentation is really the >>>>> professional thing to do. >>>>> >>>>> Maybe it is worth having a re-think as to the reason why Ansible do >>>>> not do this. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> On Wednesday, 7 January 2015 13:17:28 UTC, Brian Coca wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> Docs are available at docs.ansible.com, through the ansible-doc tool >>>>>> and man pages, docs are maintained inside the main ansible repo and >>>>>> within each module. >>>>>> >>>>>> There is no official pdf provided, mostly because it is too static a >>>>>> format and changes are constant as ansible continually grows. >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> Brian Coca >>>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "Ansible Project" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ >>>>> msgid/ansible-project/d6fd19a2-9c90-47c0-871b-9b456f260067% >>>>> 40googlegroups.com >>>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/d6fd19a2-9c90-47c0-871b-9b456f260067%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>>> . >>>>> >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Matt Martz >>>> @sivel >>>> sivel.net >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Ansible Project" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ >>> msgid/ansible-project/eab21ba2-f63b-41a3-bd0e- >>> a79e5b065877%40googlegroups.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/eab21ba2-f63b-41a3-bd0e-a79e5b065877%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Tom Bamford >> >> *@Planet* >> ATPLANET (Pty) Ltd >> atpla.net >> >> Cell: +27 (0)79-095-7112 >> Fax: +27 (0)86-599-1310 >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ansible Project" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/80c1a9f9-2229-45b0-b764-243e887bd4ec%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/80c1a9f9-2229-45b0-b764-243e887bd4ec%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ansible Project" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/CA%2BnsWgwVG-y2HAPfU-nuho8rjZ1QR389irrSZZdu%3DY%3D%3Dw2DPeA%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
