# Ansible - Passing environment variables through files

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-passing-environment-variables-through-files/27422>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [May 1, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-passing-environment-variables-through-files/27422 "2018-05-01T14:33:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ashish\_Srivastava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@Ashish\_Srivastava](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ashish_Srivastava)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-passing-environment-variables-through-files/27422/1 "2018-05-01T14:33:16Z")

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Hi All,

I’ve have searched literally all the available medium on internet for this issue but could not find the solution. So decided to raise the problem in this group.

I’ve a project having number of environments such as dev1, dev2, dev3, sit1, sit2 and so on, with total of 20 environments. These environments also share some servers between them.  
I’m using Ansible for application deployment.

**Problem:** Before starting the deployment, I need to set the environment variables by declaring the _key:value_ pair under “_environment_” section. It is not a problem if I have couple of environments to deploy but problem arises when environment multiplies.  
It is surely not feasible to create 20-30 main playbooks for each environment and declaring the environment variables to use for that deployment on playbook, as we need to source the .bashrc / .bash\_profile for each environment.

In my current set-up, I’ve created server\_groups with environment names like dev1, dev2 etc. And, assigned servers to that group on Ansible Tower.  
To trigger the app deployment, I’m passing environment name(for eg. dev1 ) which is then assigned to variable “env\_name” in site\_main.yml and deployment is done based on the servers in dev1 group.  
Environment variables for dev1 are declared under _ **environment** _ keyword in site\_main.yml. But that becomes very clumsy if I have to manage n number of playbooks for n number of environments.

Is there any way where I can create n number of environment files under _vars_ or _group\_vars_ directory having variables of that environment? And, I can dynamically call the environment file such as  
  
 _`environment: "{{ env_name }}.yml"`_

I have seen examples such as below but env\_name is hardcoded below and NOT dynamic:

```auto

vars:
 dev1:
  variable1: "{{ value1 }}"
  variable2: "{{ value2 }}"

environment: "{{ dev1 }}"

Can someone please suggest me the solution or any other better approach?

```

Thanks,  
Ashish

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**Author:** ![Karl\_Auer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cc9497/32.png) [@Karl\_Auer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Karl_Auer)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-passing-environment-variables-through-files/27422/2 "2018-05-01T15:04:50Z")

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Not sure this is useful (you seem way ahead of me) but I pass e.g. “-e env=blah” to ansible-playbook.

In my playbook (or wherever) I have include\_vars:, and I specify e.g. “path/to/{{env}}.yaml”.

As long as all the environment files have the same variables in them (with different values), it works fine.

To switch between groups of related environments I pass an additional variable and use something like “path/to{{group}}/{{env}}.yaml”

I also have groups of unrelated environments; to select between those I set an environment variable something like “{{ansible\_env.MY\_ENV}}/path/to/{{env}}.yaml”

Bad syntax above, but you know what I mean 🙂

Not sure I see what you mean by having to source bash\_rc…? Maybe I am confusing shell environment with “meta groupof variables”…

Regards, K.

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**Author:** ![Ashish\_Srivastava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/45deac/32.png) [@Ashish\_Srivastava](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Ashish_Srivastava)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2018, 2:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-passing-environment-variables-through-files/27422/3 "2018-05-02T14:25:01Z")

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Thanks Karl!!

I’ll give it a try.

Thanks,  
Ashish