how to use variables defined in another group

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1

I have several inventory files, where many groups are defined. For the big groups, I’ve defined variables in ./group_vars/${group_name}/main.yml

For one role, which is typically executed only against two groups (specifically, against one host in each one of those two big groups), I need to “borrow” a variable defined in pretty much all other groups. How do I do that? How do I tell the role to use that variable, but with the value defined in another group?

Of course, I could hardcode the values within that role, but then those values would be defined twice: once in this role, and then again as a group variable in all other groups. I want to avoid that.

2

you can use hostvars to access it through a host that belongs to the other group

hostvars['hostname']['varname']

if you don't know the host you can use the groups['groupname'] list to get one

hostvars[groups['groupname'][0]]['varname']

^ this looksup the var from the first host in the group, you can also
use |random or other indecies if you know them.