How can I ensure dependencies in a custom ansible module without having to copy the required libraries manually?

I have created an Ansible module, but I don't want to keep everything in one file, but split it into packages. In this respect, my custom module is dependent on these packages. When I run my playbook. I get an error message ModuleNotFoundError. I have set the configuration variable DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH=./my_project/library accordingly.

I have previously read that this library directory is then copied to the remote host and the script is then executed.

However, when I looked at the copied scripts from Ansible on the Remote Host, various Python modules are installed there (/tmp/ansible_xxx.../), such as module_utils and ansible_collections, as well as my main module. But the additional Python packages that I created in the library directory are not there. Consequently, the call fails because the script cannot find the corresponding packages.

Q: How can I get Ansible to deploy my dependent packages with the main script to the Remote Host? Or are there any settings in the configuration that I have missed so that the dependencies are also copied?

NOTE: I would like to avoid running additional tasks in the playbook to install the required Python modules on the Remote Machine, as this would bloat the code unnecessarily. Also, I might have to remove them afterwards.

An example follows here, for better understanding:

Directory structure:

my_project/
├── inv/...
├── playbooks/
│   └── test_module.yml
├── library/
│   ├── my_custom_module.py
│   └── utils/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       └── helper.py

my_custom_module.py:

from ansible.module_utils.basic import AnsibleModule
from utils.helper import some_function

def main():
    module_args = dict(
        param=dict(type='str', required=True)
    )
    
    module = AnsibleModule(argument_spec=module_args)
    param = module.params['param']

    # Verwende Funktionen aus deinen Abhängigkeiten
    result = some_function(param)

    # Rückgabe an Ansible
    module.exit_json(changed=True, result=result)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

playbooks/test_module.yml:

- name: Test Custom-Modul
  hosts: localhost
  tasks:
    - name: call Custom-Modul
      my_custom_module:
        param: "test-value"

I run it as:

ansible-playbook -i localhost, my_project/playbooks/test_module.yml

Which resulted in the following error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'utils'

1. I have created a test playbook
2. I have created a test module with depencies
3. The variable DEFAULT_MODULE_PATH customized in ansible.cfg
4. I transferred script inspected on the Remote Host

As far as I understand they would need to go into the module_utils instead, so it will be necessary to use the recommended structure module_utils.

Some more references are

• Preparing an environment for developing Ansible modules
• Ansible Reference: Module Utilities
• When developing Ansible plugins, how should you use module_utils imports?
• How to get ansible.module_utils to resolve my custom directory?
• Using a shared file in multiple Ansible modules

---

... the hint with module_utils helped me. You can use this directory to provide additional libraries for your own module.

Thanks for confirmation.