Environment Variables with Ansible

This is a quick post on how to use environment variables in ansible

Inventory

Our inventory.ini file looks like this:

[localhost]
localhost

Across Tasks

You can set environment variables across tasks, and let your tasks inherit the variables:

- hosts: localhost
  vars:
    var_mysecret: secret123

  tasks:
    - name: echo my env var
      environment:
        MYNAME: "{{var_mysecret}}"
      shell: "echo hello $MYNAME > /tmp/bla.txt"
      args:
        creates: /tmp/bla.txt

When we run the task:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini -u ruan task.yml

Check the output:

$ cat /tmp/bla.txt
hello secret123

Environment Variables Per Task

You can set environment variables per task:

- hosts: dev
  tasks:
    - name: echo my env var
      environment:
        MYNAME: "RUAN"
      shell: "echo hello $MYNAME > /tmp/bla2.txt"
      args:
        creates: /tmp/bla2.txt

Running the task:

$ ansible-playbook -i inventory.ini -u ruan task.yml

Checking the output:

$ cat /tmp/bla2.txt
hello RUAN

Read more on environment variables in ansible in their documentation

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Inventory

Across Tasks

Environment Variables Per Task

Read More

Thank You