Ansible Role for SQL-Ledger

This role allows you to install the current version of SQL-Ledger on Debian Trixie.

Clone the code to your Ansible roles directory:

git clone https://github.com/Tekki/ansible-sql-ledger.git $PATH_TO_ANSIBLE/roles/sql-ledger

Prerequisites

The machine from which the playbook is run needs a recent Ansible version. In most Linux distributions, it is available through the official package repository. For detailed information how to obtain current packages for your distribution of choice have a look at the Ansible documentation.

The target machine needs SSH access, Python and sudo. Standard Debian comes with Python, but without sudo, so you have to install it and update your host configuration accordingly:

ansible_become: true
ansible_become_pass: "{{ vault_sudo_pwd }}"

Role Variables

The following variables can be passed to this role:

Variable Name	Default Value	Description
debian_additional_packages	[]	additional packages to be installed
debian_locale	en_US	default UTF-8 locale
sl_admin_pwd	undefined	password for admin.pl
sl_dvipdf	false	use dvipdf instead of pdflatex
sl_git_branch	full	branch that will be checked out
sl_git_source	https://github.com/Tekki/sql-ledger.git	URL of the Git repository
sl_helpful_login	false	helpful error messages on login screen
sl_httpd_config	/etc/apache2	path to the webserver config
sl_httpd_path	/var/www/sql-ledger	local path of the installation
sl_httpd_url	sql-ledger	browser URL on the server
sl_latex	true	install and use LaTeX
sl_latex_pdftk	true	use pdftk to combine PDFs
sl_latex_xelatex	true	use XeLaTeX instead of pdflatex
sl_login_language		language of the login screen
sl_postgres_user	sql-ledger	user name to connect to PostgreSQL
sl_protect_admin	false	protect admin interface
sl_protect_password		password for protected admin interface
sl_protect_username		username for protected admin interface
sl_sendmail	"| /usr/sbin/sendmail -f <%from%> -t"	pipe to sendmail
sl_timezone	Europe/Zurich	time zone for server
texlive_lang	english	language of TeX Live that will be installed

Please notice that this role doesn't install a mail transport agent or printing system.

Example Playbook

To install with the default settings and language German/Switzerland (chd_utf) on the login screen, use the following playbook:

- hosts: sql-ledger-servers
  roles:
    - name: sql-ledger
      debian_locale: de_CH
      sl_login_language: chd_utf
      texlive_lang: german

Or better move the variables to the host configuration file:

ansible_become: true
ansible_become_pass: "{{ vault_sudo_pwd }}"

debian_locale: de_CH
sl_login_language: chd_utf
texlive_lang: german

If you want to set the password for admin.pl to '12345678' (probably not a good idea), write:

sl_admin_pwd: 12345678

Use the Vault to protect your passwords!

To make the original version from DWS available under /sl-dws, write:

sl_httpd_path: /var/www/sl-dws
sl_httpd_url: sl-dws
sl_git_branch: dws

It is possible to install the role multiple times under different URLs on the same server.

If your hosts are defined in sql-ledger.hosts in this way:

[sql-ledger-servers]
sl-server-[01:05]

and the name of the playbook is sql-ledger.yml, you can start the installation with:

ansible-playbook -i sql-ledger.hosts sql-ledger.yml

Be aware that the installation of texlive needs a lot of time.

Tags

The available tags are:

• sl-basics installs the basic packages
• sl-config updates sql-ledger and wlprinter config
• sl-database configures the access to the database
• sl-git downloads SQL-Ledger from GitHub
• sl-latex installs LaTeX, if sl_latex is true
• sl-webserver configures the webserver, including password protection

Update

To update the installation, simply run the playbook again. If you just want to download a new version:

ansible-playbook -t sl-git sql-ledger.yml

Copyright and License

© 2016-2025 Tekki (Rolf Stöckli)

GPL3