Changelog

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Added

Run copy as an action plugin: stat the destination, then file or a staged copy, sending nothing when the file already matches.
Run package as an action plugin: pick the module from the host’s package manager, gathered with a filtered setup when it is not already a fact.
Run service as an action plugin: pick the module from the host’s init system (use:, then a fact, then a filtered setup), falling back to the service module for a name none of the known backends carries rather than failing the task.
Run template as an action plugin: render the file on the controller once, then hand it to the same path copy uses.
Run unarchive as an action plugin: extract a controller archive or one already on the host, skipping the task when creates: already exists.
Add the Jinja filters, tests, methods and lookups the template engine was missing: b64decode, b64encode, comment, difference, intersect, union, flatten, from_yaml, to_yaml, to_nice_yaml, to_uuid, type_debug, quote and regex_escape; the changed, failed, succeeded, skipped and version tests; a handful of Python methods on strings and mappings, through minijinja-contrib; and the first_found and template lookups.
Run reboot as an action plugin: shut the host down, then reconnect until it answers with a new boot id and its test command succeeds.
Run with_first_found and with_fileglob loops, set ansible_run_tags and ansible_skip_tags from --tags and --skip-tags, and retry a task backed by an action plugin under until, running its whole sequence of sub-tasks again on each attempt. retries: R is now up to R + 1 runs, as in the reference. (#216)
Run fetch as an action plugin, writing a host’s file onto the controller under dest and nowhere else, refusing a path that would land outside it. (#215)
Run dnf as an action plugin, picking the dnf or dnf5 module from the host’s package manager. (#213)
Run modules from installed collections, such as ansible.posix.sysctl or community.general.ufw, on the warm Python path. The controller’s ansible-core says what each name is, and a missing collection, a collection’s action plugin or a module that cannot be built is refused before the first connection. Volant never installs a collection. (#211)
Add the fileglob lookup and the ansible.utils.ipwrap filter, and answer every filter and test under its ansible.builtin.* name too. (#210)
An install script: curl -fsSL https://volant.sh/install.sh | sh installs the newest release, controller and agents together, after checking its checksum.
The release controller carries its agents. cargo binstall volant, the shell installer and the release archives give a volant that runs local and SSH tasks with nothing else installed. On first use the agents are extracted to ~/.cache/volant/agents/<version>, or under $XDG_CACHE_HOME.

Changed

Agents are looked up in VOLANT_AGENT_DIR first, then among the agents built into the controller, then beside the executable.
Release archives no longer contain the agents. They are still published on their own, in the volant-agent-* archives.
A copy, template or unarchive task whose src was named by a managed host is now rejected before the file is looked up, rather than sent the way the reference sends it: a host that controls a command’s output or a fact could otherwise have any file the operator can read copied to it.
The documentation site moves to volant.sh and is rebuilt with sections, search and diagrams. It adds pages on installation, compatibility, the command line, configuration, inventories and exit codes.

Fixed

A controller started through a symbolic link finds its agents next to the file the link points at. On macOS it used to look in the directory of the link.
A file staged for a module belongs to the connection that sent it. Two links to one host no longer consume each other’s files, and a staged file left by a cancelled batch, a lost link or a killed agent is cleaned up. (#191)
A vars file holding only --- and a comment loads as an empty mapping, a templated ignore_errors is rendered when the task runs, ansible_search_path is set for every task and role_path for a role’s, and Python module results get stdout_lines and stderr_lines. (#196)
Tasks brought in by include_tasks or include_role inherit the tags and other keywords of the play, role and blocks around the statement. Under --tags, a tagged role’s included files used to run nothing while the run exited 0. The Python union also carries the modules of every file of the roles in play, and a failed module’s exception no longer shows as a raw object. (#199)
A task’s own vars: built from a lookup that needs the role’s search path, such as lookup('template'), now resolve. (#200)
A loop whose every item was skipped prints the task’s own skipping: line after the item lines, as ansible-core does. (#202)
A notify naming no handler in a dynamically included file ends the run with exit code 1, as ansible-core does. fatal: lines no longer show "failed": true, module warnings are printed as [WARNING]: lines, and an interrupted pause ends the run without counting a failure. (#204)