Major features/changes:
* when_foo which was previously deprecated is now removed, use "when:" instead. Code generates appropriate error suggestion.
* include + with_items which was previously deprecated is now removed, ditto. Use with_nested / with_together, etc.
* only_if, which is much older than when_foo and was deprecated, is similarly removed.
* ssh connection plugin is now more efficient if you add 'pipelining=True' in ansible.cfg under [ssh_connection], see example.cfg
* localhost/127.0.0.1 is not required to be in inventory if referenced, if not in inventory, it does not implicitly appear in the 'all' group.
* git module has new parameters (accept_hostkey, key_file, ssh_opts) to ease the usage of git and ssh protocols.
* when using accelerate mode, the daemon will now be restarted when specifying a different remote_user between plays.
* added no_log: option for tasks. When used, no logging information will be sent to syslog during the module execution.
* acl module now handles 'default' and allows for either shorthand entry or specific fields per entry section
* play_hosts is a new magic variable to provide a list of hosts in scope for the current play.
* ec2 module now accepts 'exact_count' and 'count_tag' as a way to enforce a running number of nodes by tags.
* all ec2 modules that work with Eucalyptus also now support a 'validate_certs' option, which can be set to 'off' for installations using self-signed certs.
* Start of new integration test infrastructure (WIP, more details TBD)
* if repoquery is unavailable, the yum module will automatically attempt to install yum-utils
* ansible-vault: a framework for encrypting your playbooks and variable files
* added support for privilege escalation via 'su' into bin/ansible and bin/ansible-playbook and associated keywords 'su', 'su_user', 'su_pass' for tasks/plays
New modules:
- cloud
* docker_image
* ec2_elb_lb
* ec2_key
* ec2_snapshot
* rax_dns
* rax_dns_record
* rax_files
* rax_files_objects
* rax_keypair
* rax_queue
- messaging
* rabbitmq_policy
- system
* at
- utilities
* assert
Other notable changes (many new module params & bugfixes may not be listed):
* no_reboot is now defaulted to "no" in the ec2_ami module to ensure filesystem consistency in the resulting AMI.
* sysctl module overhauled
* authorized_key module overhauled
* synchronized module now handles local transport better
* apt_key module now ignores case on keys
* zypper_repository now skips on check mode
* file module now responds to force behavior when dealing with hardlinks
* new lookup plugin 'csvfile'
* fixes to allow hash_merge behavior to work with dynamic inventory
* mysql module will use port argument on dump/import
* subversion module now ignores locale to better intercept status messages
* rax api_key argument is no longer logged
* backwards/forwards compatibility for OpenStack modules, 'quantum' modules grok neutron renaming
* hosts properly uniqueified if appearing in redundant groups
* hostname module support added for ScientificLinux
* ansible-pull can now show live stdout and pass verbosity levels to ansible-playbook
* ec2 instances can now be stopped or started
* additional volumes can be created when creating new ec2 instances
* user module can move a home directory
* significant enhancement and cleanup of rackspace modules
* ansible_ssh_private_key_file can be templated
* docker module updated to support docker-py 0.3.0
* various other bug fixes
* md5 logic improved during sudo operation
* support for ed25519 keys in authorized_key module
* ability to set directory permissions during a recursive copy (directory_mode parameter)