I am writing regarding the https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/9877 where different behaviour of playbook level vars was reported for version 1.8. That issue was closed as not a bug, despite the fact that previous behaviour was clearly documented.
“Tip: In Ansible 1.2 or later the group_vars/ and host_vars/ directories can exist in either the playbook directory OR the inventory directory. If both paths exist, variables in the playbook directory will be loaded second.”
but 1.8 version is not following it, it instead prefers variables in “group_vars” next to playbook over the ones defined in inventory.
The issue is closed as “won’t fix”, therefore I am writing here to discuss this topic. You should not break whay you promised before, guys, you had that feature since 1.2, why did you decide get rid of it now? Lets not discuss how to achieve same result, but to have talk about why working case is being broken?
Frist, the issue is not closed, much less "won't fix".
Second, "loading second" or last means the playbook vars would
override the previously defined ones. So group_vars in playbook
overriding group_vars in inventory complies with the documentation.
Third, we are still looking into this (as mentioned above the ticket
is not closed).
it was closed with an invitation to discuss it in mail list,which I did. It was reopen since almost immediately without me noticing it.
As what "loading second"means, it can be read 2 ways, my understanding was that if it comes second, then it doesn’t touch whatever is already there, therefore it is more defaulty.
I can see that it is only version 1.7.x where playbook level group_vars are more defaulty, versions 1.6.x and 1.5.x show same behaviour as 1.8.x, it is very unfortunate that I discovered and and start using this feature during 1.7.x cycle.