AnsibleByExample

Ansible Core 2.21.3 Released - Bugfix Update Overview

Beginner
2024-01-013By Luca Berton

Lesson 1 of 15 in Foundations

Ansible Foundations to Production — full curriculum
  1. 1. Introduction to Ansible and Automation
  2. 2. Installing and Configuring Ansible
  3. 3. Running Ad-Hoc Commands
  4. 4. Writing Your First Playbook
  5. 5. Understanding and Using Modules
  6. 6. Variables and Facts
  7. 7. Conditionals and Loops
  8. 8. Handlers and Idempotency
  9. 9. Structuring Projects with Roles
  10. 10. Inventory Management
  11. 11. Using Ansible Vault for Secrets
  12. 12. Debugging and Troubleshooting
  13. 13. Real-World Automation Examples
  14. 14. Final Project: Deploy a Web Server
  15. 15. Bonus - What's Next with Ansible?
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Introduction

Ansible Core 2.21.3 was released on 2026-08-10, following 2.21.2. This is a bugfix-only release with no new features. Below is a rundown of the fixes included and how to install or upgrade to this version.

Release page: ansible/ansible v2.21.3

Whats New

Bugfixes

  • Add deprecation status to the tree and oneline callback DOCUMENTATION (issue #87020)
  • ansible-galaxy - fix attempting to download the collection again if the response from the server is shorter than expected, instead of failing due to the mismatched artifact hash on the first attempt (PR #86025)
  • ansible-test - fix target filtering to preserve user-specified versions that are not in the completion configuration
  • collection loader - fix the collection loader logic to correctly return a Python module when calling pkgutil.iter_modules with a package that is inside a collection path and contains compiled Python extension modules
  • powershell exec_wrapper - fix handling when multiple pwsh executables match, by selecting the first result (issue #87228)
  • rpm_key - ensure a trailing newline is present on PGP armor data before passing it to librpm for parsing, fixing failures on systems where pgpParsePkts requires it (issue #87303)

The full list of changes is available in the CHANGELOG-v2.21.rst for this release.

Release Artifacts

ArtifactSizeSHA256
ansible_core-2.21.3-py3-none-any.whl2446988 bytes9e7dd367f7dc5d5e9fc5ae1baf8af9c4edc09e916a73a40108a3f32e3ad93f10
ansible_core-2.21.3.tar.gz3397615 bytes4194fbd82273cbacfd06d86d74d2d7168c3c4b8426c03e93562cd7217f811ae1

How to Test

Install or upgrade ansible-core in a virtual environment and verify the version and checksum before rolling it out:

# Create an isolated environment
python3 -m venv ansible-2213-test
source ansible-2213-test/bin/activate

# Install the exact version
pip install ansible-core==2.21.3

# Verify the installed version
ansible --version

# Optional: verify the downloaded wheel checksum
curl -LO https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/a3/fa/938fe0504372377af2bef42abe0d8e463fdcd011ad803eaf300e4577dd7a/ansible_core-2.21.3-py3-none-any.whl
sha256sum ansible_core-2.21.3-py3-none-any.whl
# Expected: 9e7dd367f7dc5d5e9fc5ae1baf8af9c4edc09e916a73a40108a3f32e3ad93f10

# Run a quick sanity check with rpm_key and ansible-galaxy affected areas
ansible-galaxy collection install community.general --force
ansible-doc -t callback tree

If the current environment already runs 2.21.2, upgrade in place:

pip install --upgrade ansible-core==2.21.3
ansible --version

Conclusion

Ansible Core 2.21.3 addresses a small set of targeted bugs affecting ansible-galaxy collection downloads, rpm_key PGP parsing on librpm-based systems, the powershell exec_wrapper on hosts with multiple pwsh binaries, the collection loader for packages containing compiled extension modules, and ansible-test target filtering. Anyone hitting these specific issues on 2.21.2 should upgrade; otherwise this can be scheduled as a routine maintenance update.

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