# Is the "all" group not at the same level as groups?

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-the-all-group-not-at-the-same-level-as-groups/18610>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [June 25, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-the-all-group-not-at-the-same-level-as-groups/18610 "2015-06-25T18:16:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![David\_Reagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/71e660/32.png) [@David\_Reagan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/David_Reagan)\
**Post date:** [June 25, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-the-all-group-not-at-the-same-level-as-groups/18610/1 "2015-06-25T18:16:20Z")

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Ansible docs say:

```auto
* extra vars (-e in the command line) always win
* then comes connection variables defined in inventory (ansible_ssh_user, etc)
* then comes "most everything else" (command line switches, vars in play, included vars, role vars, etc)
* then comes the rest of the variables defined in inventory
* then comes facts discovered about a system
* then "role defaults", which are the most "defaulty" and lose in priority to everything.

```

The “all” group would fall into the “most everything else” line.

But after some testing with a simple debug play, shouldn’t it actually look like this?

```auto
* extra vars (-e in the command line) always win
* then comes connection variables defined in inventory (ansible_ssh_user, etc)
* then comes "most everything else" (command line switches, vars in play, included vars, role vars, etc)
* then comes the all group
* then comes the rest of the variables defined in inventory
* then comes facts discovered about a system
* then "role defaults", which are the most "defaulty" and lose in priority to everything.

```

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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:** [June 26, 2015, 1:22pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-the-all-group-not-at-the-same-level-as-groups/18610/2 "2015-06-26T13:22:55Z")

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Within the groups there is also a order (which is not documented in  
that paragraph above), 'all' is the least precedence, and then groups  
in the order read/loaded, so child groups overwrite parent groups,  
etc.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![David\_Reagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/71e660/32.png) [@David\_Reagan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/David_Reagan)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 4:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/is-the-all-group-not-at-the-same-level-as-groups/18610/3 "2015-06-26T16:25:14Z")

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Can we get that order documented?