# include\_vars doesn't seem to persist across hosts

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [January 30, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407 "2015-01-30T22:32:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![david.neudorfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@david.neudorfer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/david.neudorfer)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 10:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407/1 "2015-01-30T22:32:13Z")

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I’m required to

- name: include consul secrets  
include\_vars: /tmp/secrets.yml

for each set of -hosts:

Is it possible to include this file at the beginning and not have to call it for every host?

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**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:** [January 30, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407/2 "2015-01-30T22:43:16Z")

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use vars\_files at the play level, include\_vars is designed to  
specifically work as you describe.

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**Author:** ![david.neudorfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@david.neudorfer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/david.neudorfer)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407/3 "2015-01-30T22:56:05Z")

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Is it possible to have an ansible task that generates the /tmp/secrets.yml. The playbook fails because secrets.yml doesn’t exist until the first task is run.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [January 30, 2015, 10:56pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407/4 "2015-01-30T22:56:42Z")

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you can use multiple plays

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![david.neudorfer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@david.neudorfer](https://forum.ansible.com/u/david.neudorfer)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/include-vars-doesnt-seem-to-persist-across-hosts/17407/5 "2015-01-30T23:16:32Z")

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I run ansible-playbook from within a docker container so files that are created don’t persist across subsequent runs. I was able to create a includes\_vars task under hosts: all which fixes the issue for me.

Thanks!