# Ansible scans all files under host\_vars when executing a playbook **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 2, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648 "2018-02-02T18:06:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Carl\_Wainwright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8797f3/32.png) [@Carl\_Wainwright](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carl_Wainwright)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648/1 "2018-02-02T18:06:22Z")
Greetings, I trying to understand if my setup is correct or not given the subject matter. When I run a playbook on a particular host and a host\_vars file for another host has a syntactical error the playbook execution fails because of the broken host\_vars file. Here is my inventory file layout ` docker11\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.12 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker12\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.14 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker13\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.15 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker14\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.17 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker15\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.18 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker21\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.3 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker22\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.4 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker23\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.5 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker24\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.6 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker31\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.13 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport docker32\_s ansible\_host=172.28.5.16 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport mqtts-vdc20\_s ansible\_host=10.156.20.207 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport mqtts-vdc21\_s ansible\_host=10.156.21.201 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport mqtts-vdc22\_s ansible\_host=10.156.22.34 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport mqtts-vdc23\_s ansible\_host=10.156.23.35 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc60-vm1 ansible\_host=172.28.5.14 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc60-vm2 ansible\_host=172.28.5.15 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc60-vm3 ansible\_host=172.28.5.16 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc30-vm1 ansible\_host=10.156.30.232 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc30-vm2 ansible\_host=10.156.30.233 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc30-vm3 ansible\_host=10.156.30.234 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc34-vm1 ansible\_host=10.156.34.45 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc34-vm2 ansible\_host=10.156.34.46 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc34-vm3 ansible\_host=10.156.34.47 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport camdockein01\_s ansible\_host=10.255.248.14 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport vdc80\_s ansible\_host=172.29.32.136 ansible\_ssh\_user=ipasupport [dockerengines\_laptop] vdc80\_s [dockerengines\_taf] camdockein01\_s shortname=camdockein01 [dockerengines\_ptk2] docker11\_s shortname=docker11 docker12\_s shortname=docker12 docker13\_s shortname=docker13 docker14\_s shortname=docker14 docker15\_s shortname=docker15 docker21\_s shortname=docker21 docker22\_s shortname=docker22 docker23\_s shortname=docker23 docker24\_s shortname=docker24 docker31\_s shortname=docker31 docker32\_s shortname=docker32 [docker23] docker23\_s shortname=docker23 [vdc60] vdc60-vm1 shortname=vdc60 vdc60-vm2 shortname=vdc60 vdc60-vm3 shortname=vdc60 [vdc70] vdc70\_s shortname=vdc70 [vdc21] mqtts-vdc21\_s shortname=vdc21 [vdc30] vdc30-vm1 shortname=vdc30 vdc30-vm2 shortname=vdc30 vdc30-vm3 shortname=vdc30 [vdc34] vdc34-vm1 shortname=vdc34 vdc34-vm2 shortname=vdc34 vdc34-vm3 shortname=vdc34 [dockerengines\_rs] mqtts-vdc20\_s shortname=vdc20 mqtts-vdc21\_s shortname=vdc21 mqtts-vdc22\_s shortname=vdc22 mqtts-vdc23\_s shortname=vdc23 [dockerengines:children] dockerengines\_ptk2 dockerengines\_rs dockerengines\_taf vdc60 vdc30 vdc34 dockerengines\_laptop ` The playbooks are executing using the host names only. The playbooks all start with ` - hosts: dockerengines ` Is this behavior normal or am I causing this by how my inventory/playbooks are defined? Regards, Carl ---
**Author:** ![Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kai\_Stian\_Olstad](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Kai_Stian_Olstad)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 9:03am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648/2 "2018-02-04T09:03:03Z")
> I trying to understand if my setup is correct or not given the subject > matter. > > When I run a playbook on a particular host and a host\_vars file for another > host has a syntactical error the playbook execution fails because of the > broken host\_vars file. \ > The playbooks are executing using the host names only. The playbooks all > start with > > - hosts: dockerengines > > Is this behavior normal or am I causing this by how my inventory/playbooks > are defined? This is by design, Ansible will read all the files in the inventory that includes group\_vars and host\_vars. ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Wainwright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8797f3/32.png) [@Carl\_Wainwright](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Carl_Wainwright)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648/3 "2018-02-05T15:11:42Z")
Hi, Do you know if there a way to sanity check updated group/host var files before I commit the changes to Git? Regards, Carl ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/original/1X/1882d9a01da5d8996a862359b0913cc568a39b84.svg) [@system](https://forum.ansible.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648/4 "2018-02-05T16:08:40Z")
I use this 1 liner. python -c 'import yaml,sys;yaml.safe\_load(sys.stdin)' \< host\_vars/testhost.yml ---
**Author:** ![Chris\_DiGiovanni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b38774/32.png) [@Chris\_DiGiovanni](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Chris_DiGiovanni)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/ansible-scans-all-files-under-host-vars-when-executing-a-playbook/26648/5 "2018-02-05T19:27:44Z")
You could also just run ansible-playbook -i {{inventory}} {{ some-playbook}} --syntax-check - Chris