# How to set an environment variable on Linux distro for a user using ansible playbook? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** rhel, ubuntu\ **Created:** [October 1, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-on-linux-distro-for-a-user-using-ansible-playbook/19411 "2015-10-01T21:58:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pratik\_Dhandharia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@Pratik\_Dhandharia](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pratik_Dhandharia)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-on-linux-distro-for-a-user-using-ansible-playbook/19411/1 "2015-10-01T21:58:46Z")
Hi All, I need to set some environment variable for all the user who is executing the ansible script. Currently I am doing something like this in the playbook: - hosts: all task: - name: get path shell: which R register: r\_path - name: create file in /etc/profile.d shell: touch /etc/profile.d/rpath.sh sudo: yes args: creates: /etc/profile.d/rpath.sh - name: create environment variable and paste in file shell: echo “export RHOME={{ r\_path.stdout }}” \> /etc/profile.d/rpath.sh - name: reload profile shell: source /etc/profile When I run this playbook, it works fine on RHEL machine. But it fails on Ubuntu machine. The reason being, on ubuntu source command is not present. So what I was wondering is, can this be done in a better way? Or is there a better way to reload the profile on ubuntu ? Also another question: When we have a playbook with multiple task, does ansible execute all the task as if it were a single session? or Each new task is a separate session with the host? The reason I am asking is because, in my ansible script, once I have set the environment variable, I would like to use that in the next task. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Brian\_Coca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@Brian\_Coca](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Brian_Coca)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2015, 11:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-on-linux-distro-for-a-user-using-ansible-playbook/19411/2 "2015-10-01T23:18:30Z")
source is not a command its a builtin in bash, ansible uses /bin/sh if it is not a symlink to bash or bash is set to do strict sh you won't have 'source', but you always have . which does the same thing. that said shell: source /etc/profile is a noop, it does nothing as ansible will open a new shell and that info won't be available in other tasks. you can do this to set an environment var for all tasks in a play: - hosts: all   environment:        RHOME: /path/to/r   tasks:      - .... ---
**Author:** ![Pratik\_Dhandharia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@Pratik\_Dhandharia](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Pratik_Dhandharia)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-on-linux-distro-for-a-user-using-ansible-playbook/19411/3 "2015-10-02T14:52:51Z")
Thanks for clarifying my understanding and suggesting a workaround. It worked! ---
**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 5, 2018, 6:50am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-on-linux-distro-for-a-user-using-ansible-playbook/19411/4 "2018-05-05T06:50:28Z")
Hi All, I’ve a similar problem, but I want to load environment variable “ORACLE\_HOME” based on the hostname since ORACLE\_HOME is different for each server. And, there are n number of hosts defined in inventory, which in turn assigned to groups like dev, sit, uat etc. In my scenario, I’m passing env\_name to playbook, which resolves hostnames and does the deployment on those servers. I don’t want to keep separate playbook for each server due to different ORACLE\_HOME. I tried multiple ways to do it. But no luck. Anyone aware, how it can be achieved? Thanks, Ashish Kumar