Leveraging version control tools
As we discussed earlier in this chapter, it is vital that you version control and test not only your code but also your Ansible automation code. This should include inventories (or dynamic inventory collections), any custom modules, plugins, roles, and playbook code. The reason for this is simple—the ultimate goal of Ansible automation is likely to be to deploy an entire environment using a playbook (or set of playbooks). This might even involve deploying infrastructure as code, especially if you are deploying to a cloud environment.
Any changes to your Ansible code could mean big changes to your environment and possibly even determine whether an important production service works or not. As a result, it is vital that you maintain a version history of your Ansible code and that everyone works from the same version. You are free to choose the version control system that suits you best; most corporate environments will already have some kind...
