Setting the remote environment¶
New in version 1.1.
You can use the environment
keyword at the play, block, or task level to set an environment variable for an action on a remote host. With this keyword, you can enable using a proxy for a task that does http requests, set the required environment variables for language-specific version managers, and more.
When you set a value with environment:
at the play or block level, it is available only to tasks within the play or block that are executed by the same user. The environment:
keyword does not affect Ansible itself, Ansible configuration settings, the environment for other users, or the execution of other plugins like lookups and filters. Variables set with environment:
do not automatically become Ansible facts, even when you set them at the play level. You must include an explicit gather_facts
task in your playbook and set the environment
keyword on that task to turn these values into Ansible facts.
Setting the remote environment in a task¶
You can set the environment directly at the task level:
- hosts: all
remote_user: root
tasks:
- name: Install cobbler
ansible.builtin.package:
name: cobbler
state: present
environment:
http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080
You can re-use environment settings by defining them as variables in your play and accessing them in a task as you would access any stored Ansible variable:
- hosts: all
remote_user: root
# create a variable named "proxy_env" that is a dictionary
vars:
proxy_env:
http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080
tasks:
- name: Install cobbler
ansible.builtin.package:
name: cobbler
state: present
environment: "{{ proxy_env }}"
You can store environment settings for re-use in multiple playbooks by defining them in a group_vars file:
---
# file: group_vars/boston
ntp_server: ntp.bos.example.com
backup: bak.bos.example.com
proxy_env:
http_proxy: http://proxy.bos.example.com:8080
https_proxy: http://proxy.bos.example.com:8080
You can set the remote environment at the play level:
- hosts: testing
roles:
- php
- nginx
environment:
http_proxy: http://proxy.example.com:8080
These examples show proxy settings, but you can provide any number of settings this way.
Working with language-specific version managers¶
Some language-specific version managers (such as rbenv and nvm) require you to set environment variables while these tools are in use. When using these tools manually, you usually source some environment variables from a script or from lines added to your shell configuration file. In Ansible, you can do this with the environment keyword at the play level:
---
### A playbook demonstrating a common npm workflow:
# - Check for package.json in the application directory
# - If package.json exists:
# * Run npm prune
# * Run npm install
- hosts: application
become: false
vars:
node_app_dir: /var/local/my_node_app
environment:
NVM_DIR: /var/local/nvm
PATH: /var/local/nvm/versions/node/v4.2.1/bin:{{ ansible_env.PATH }}
tasks:
- name: Check for package.json
ansible.builtin.stat:
path: '{{ node_app_dir }}/package.json'
register: packagejson
- name: Run npm prune
ansible.builtin.command: npm prune
args:
chdir: '{{ node_app_dir }}'
when: packagejson.stat.exists
- name: Run npm install
community.general.npm:
path: '{{ node_app_dir }}'
when: packagejson.stat.exists
Note
The example above uses ansible_env
as part of the PATH. Basing variables on ansible_env
is risky. Ansible populates ansible_env
values by gathering facts, so the value of the variables depends on the remote_user or become_user Ansible used when gathering those facts. If you change remote_user/become_user the values in ansible-env
may not be the ones you expect.
Warning
Environment variables are normally passed in clear text (shell plugin dependent) so they are not a recommended way of passing secrets to the module being executed.
You can also specify the environment at the task level:
---
- name: Install ruby 2.3.1
ansible.builtin.command: rbenv install {{ rbenv_ruby_version }}
args:
creates: '{{ rbenv_root }}/versions/{{ rbenv_ruby_version }}/bin/ruby'
vars:
rbenv_root: /usr/local/rbenv
rbenv_ruby_version: 2.3.1
environment:
CONFIGURE_OPTS: '--disable-install-doc'
RBENV_ROOT: '{{ rbenv_root }}'
PATH: '{{ rbenv_root }}/bin:{{ rbenv_root }}/shims:{{ rbenv_plugins }}/ruby-build/bin:{{ ansible_env.PATH }}'
See also
- Intro to playbooks
An introduction to playbooks
- User Mailing List
Have a question? Stop by the google group!
- irc.freenode.net
#ansible IRC chat channel