Is "environment" a reserved variable name?

[Joost Cassee]

Hi,

When I set the variable name "environment" and use it in a playbook, it is empty. Is it a reserved variable name?

Regards,

Joost

[James Cammarata]

Environment is a keyword for playbooks/tasks, however I don't think there's a direct issue with using it as a variable name. To be safe, you should probably use a different variable name anyway as it could be confused. If you change the name and still have issues, please post a sample of the playbook you're having problems with as well as information about the ansible version you're running (the output of "ansible --version").

See http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_environment.html for more info about setting environment variables, if that's what you're trying to do.

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[Joost Cassee]

Well, I am using the word environment in the sense of "deployment environment", but the term may be a bit general. Anyway, this is the playbook:

test.yml:

---

- hosts: all

  tasks:

  - debug: msg="{{ environment }}"

  - debug: msg="{{ foo }}"

This is the inventory:

hosts:

[test]

localhost

When I run this command:

ansible-playbook test.yml -i hosts -c local -e foo=bar -e environment=qux

This is the output:

PLAY [all] ******************************************************************** 

GATHERING FACTS *************************************************************** 

ok: [localhost]

TASK: [debug msg="qux"] ******************************************************* 

ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "{}"}

TASK: [debug msg="bar"] ******************************************************* 

ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "bar"}

PLAY RECAP ******************************************************************** 

localhost                  : ok=3    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0  

Note that the variable is interpolated in the debug task header!

I am using Ansible 1.3.4.

Regards,

Joost

Op maandag 4 november 2013 15:35:48 UTC+1 schreef James Cammarata:

[James Cammarata]

Ahh, you can't do multiple "-e" options, just combine them: -e "foo=bar,environment=qux"

[Joost Cassee]

2013/11/4 James Cammarata <jcamm...@ansibleworks.com>:

> Ahh, you can't do multiple "-e" options, just combine them: -e
> "foo=bar,environment=qux"

Are you sure? This makes the output change into:

PLAY [all] ********************************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK: [debug msg="{{environment}}"] *******************************************
ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "{}"}

TASK: [debug msg="bar,environment=qux"] ***************************************
ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "bar,environment=qux"}

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
localhost : ok=3 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

But when I remove foo from the equation, environment is still empty:

PLAY [all] ********************************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [localhost]

TASK: [debug msg="qux"] *******************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "{}"}

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
localhost : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0

Regards,
Joost

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Joost Cassee
http://joost.cassee.net

[Serge van Ginderachter]

Yes, environment is a restricted keyword. Initially specific within playbooks, but it gets injected in the runner:

    inject['environment'] = self.environment

so it will erase whatever value was set by inventory of vars.

TASK: [debug msg="qux"] ******************************************************* 

ok: [localhost] => {"msg": "{}"}

Note that the variable is interpolated in the debug task header!

Yes, as that happens when the playbook tasks are parsed, way before the runner is initialized.

Serge

[James Cammarata]

Oops, my mistake, the variables should be space-separated, not comma-separated. So -e "foo=bar environment=qux"

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[Joost Cassee]

2013/11/4 Serge van Ginderachter <se...@vanginderachter.be>:
> Yes, environment is a restricted keyword. [...]

Thanks for the info. What is the runner environment?

And could I have found this out myself?

[Serge van Ginderachter]

On 4 November 2013 16:01, Joost Cassee <jo...@cassee.net> wrote:

> Yes, environment is a restricted keyword. [...]

Thanks for the info. What is the runner environment?

An ansible internal, it's the basic building block that "runs a task on a host"

And could I have found this out myself?

​Depends if you are familiar with the ansible source code. I basically did a "grep environment​ lib/ -r" to double check this, you can find it in lib/ansible/runner/__init__.py

​If you have further questions on code, be sure to switch to the ansible-devel mailing list.

Serge​

[Serge van Ginderachter]

On 4 November 2013 15:59, James Cammarata <jcamm...@ansibleworks.com> wrote:

Oops, my mistake, the variables should be space-separated, not comma-separated. So -e "foo=bar environment=qux"

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Joost Cassee <jo...@cassee.net> wrote:

2013/11/4 James Cammarata <jcamm...@ansibleworks.com>:

> Ahh, you can't do multiple "-e" options, just combine them: -e
> "foo=bar,environment=qux"

​That is actually quite confusing. Even as i use this a lot and have been for quite a while, I keep forgetting these details myself.

I wonder what was the rationale to not allow for multiple -e options, which seem ​a lot easier to me.

Serge

[Joost Cassee]

2013/11/4 Serge van Ginderachter <se...@vanginderachter.be>:

> On 4 November 2013 16:01, Joost Cassee <jo...@cassee.net> wrote:
>> > Yes, environment is a restricted keyword. [...]
>>
>> Thanks for the info. What is the runner environment?
>
> An ansible internal, it's the basic building block that "runs a task on a
> host"

So is this an internal structure that is leaking out? Or is this
something that could be interesting for a task?

>> And could I have found this out myself?
>
>

> Depends if you are familiar with the ansible source code. [...]

>
> If you have further questions on code, be sure to switch to the
> ansible-devel mailing list.

Although the Ansible code is interesting, I was asking from a user's
perspective. I was wondering if I overlooked some part of the
documentation.

[Serge van Ginderachter]

So is this an internal structure that is leaking out? Or is this
something that could be interesting for a task?

Not really leaking, no, it's just the structure that is using 'environment' and hence restriciting it for use to end users.

​​

Although the Ansible code is interesting, I was asking from a user's

perspective. I was wondering if I overlooked some part of the
documentation.

Sorry, I overshoot that one :)

I see it's mentioned here:

http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_variables.html#magic-variables-and-how-to-access-information-about-other-hosts​​

Serge

[Joost Cassee]

Thanks for the link, Serge!

Joost

Op 4 nov. 2013 16:35 schreef "Serge van Ginderachter" <se...@vanginderachter.be>:

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[Michael DeHaan]

Let me correct this:

-e "foo=bar env=qux"

It's key value pairs, just like the rest of ansible.

Also, don't use environment, as it's a reserved word :)

I think it would be nice if the system raised a warning when a variable named env was set, someone should perhaps file a ticket so we can add that :)

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[Joost Cassee]

2013/11/5 Michael DeHaan <mic...@ansibleworks.com>:

> I think it would be nice if the system raised a warning when a variable
> named env was set, someone should perhaps file a ticket so we can add that
> :)

I am assuming you meant "environment" instead of "env", as the latter
is not reserved and created a ticket:

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/4816

Hope I got that right. Thanks!

[Michael DeHaan]

yep, thanks!

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