Is it possible to use dotenv with ansible?

[npearson72]

I currently have variables in a yaml file that ansible uses. I'd like to consolidate all my variables into a common format, and am looking into dotenv. Does anyone know if it's possible for ansible to access the dotenv variables?

In the documentation it mentioned using the dotenv executable. Is that a way to instantiate the variables in memory for whatever script I'm running -- even if it's not a ruby script?

[nickhammond]

Ansible is very flexible and powerful with the way it uses variables. I love dotenv but I wouldn't recommend it for managing variables with Ansible. There's a huge advantage to using Ansible's Vault as well as the various ways to set and load variables. If the variables are specific to an application you could use host specific variables or group specific variables which is what I typically use.

[bkeepers]

I've never used Ansible, so I'll defer to @nickhammond.

You can use the dotenv executable to set variables for any other command:

dotenv -f path/to/.env other-command

[nickhammond]

@npearson72 If you do end up needing to do this, you'll just need to use the lookup method(example), something like this:

.env

FOO=bar

ansible playbook:

debug: var={{ lookup('env', 'FOO') }}

$ dotenv ansible-playbook playbook.yml -i inventory

[npearson72]

I've bee really busy lately, so have just know had a chance to try this out. Works like a charm. Thanks guys!

[wayne-o]

I get this:

vagrant@ubuntu-bionic:~/init-cluster/ansible$ dotenv ansible-playbook -i hosts.yml --become --become-user=root finalise-cluster.yml
Usage: dotenv [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Error: No such command "ansible-playbook".

[nickhammond]

@wayne-o Does running just ansible-playbook work fine? Can you run dotenv --version or provide some additional environment information?