Using group_vars alongside inventory directories

[Niko Felger]

Hi,

Is it possible to use a group_vars/ directory alongside inventory directories (as opposed to files)?

Take this simplified example, which has an inventory file (staging) and an inventory directory (production):

$ tree

.

└── inventories

    ├── group_vars

    │   └── all.yml

    ├── production

    │   └── hosts

    └── staging

staging and production/hosts both contain a single host:

[localhost]

127.0.0.1

group_vars/all.yml defines a variable example_var:

---

example_var: present

Running the staging inventory file picks up group_vars:

$ ansible -i inventories/staging all -m debug -a 'msg="{{hostvars}}"'

127.0.0.1 | success >> {

    "msg": "{'inventory_hostname': '127.0.0.1', 'example_var': 'present', 'inventory_hostname_short': '127', 'group_names': ['localhost']}"

}

But running the production inventory directory doesn't pick them up (no example_var in the output):

$ ansible -i inventories/production/ all -m debug -a 'msg="{{hostvars}}"'

127.0.0.1 | success >> {

    "msg": "{'inventory_hostname': '127.0.0.1', 'inventory_hostname_short': '127', 'group_names': ['localhost']}"

}

How can I have the group_vars be picked up without having to duplicate them under inventories/production/group_vars?

I want to use an inventory directory to mix static and dynamic inventory, with one inventory directory per environment (dev/stage/prod), and some shared vars. Maybe there's a better way to do this though?

Thanks!
Niko

PS: I asked a similar (and quite long-winded) question yesterday. Since I didn't get an answer, I thought I'd come up with a more specific formulation, I hope that's fine! I'm new to this list -- if there's anything I can do to make answering my questions easier, please let me know!

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