# sharing roles **URL:** \ **Category:** AWX Project\ **Tags:** awx\ **Created:** [September 19, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539 "2017-09-19T21:24:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mike\_Biancaniello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@Mike\_Biancaniello](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_Biancaniello)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/1 "2017-09-19T21:24:58Z")
On a normal system, I would install all of my roles into a common place (e.g. /etc/ansible/roles/). Then, any playbook on the system can use any of them. I store each role in a separate git repo. In AWX, projects seem to be completed self-contained units. It appears as though, if I wanted to reuse the same role in multiple projects, I would have to import that role (requirements.yml) into each of the projects, but that playbooks/roles in project1 are unable to re-use roles in project2. Is there any way around this? Is there some directory where I can install roles that can be used by any playbook in any project? The problem I have with this is that I have one git repo that stores all of my playbooks (that use these roles) that are organized in subdirectories. If I were to install this as a single project, then the requirements.yml would install all of the roles in a directory not accessible by the playbooks: My tree in git: > . > > ├── playbooks/ > > │ ├── collection1/ > > │ │ └── playbook1.yml > > │ └── collection2/ > > │ ├── playbook1.yml > > │ └── playbook2.yml > > └── roles/ > > └── requirements.yml Tree after installing roles: > . > > ├── playbooks/ > > │ ├── collection1/ > > │ │ └── playbook1.yml > > │ └── collection2/ > > │ ├── playbook1.yml > > │ └── playbook2.yml > > └── roles/ > > ├── role1/ > > ├── role2/ > > └── requirements.yml The idea of creating a separate git repo for every collection saddens me, so I’d prefer to not have to do that. I haven’t gotten AWX to successfully install the requirements, so I haven’t been able to verify that that tree structure won’t work, but it doesn’t work when running ansible-playbook in a typical setting. ---
**Author:** ![matburt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/matburt/32/3612_2.png) [@matburt](https://forum.ansible.com/u/matburt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/2 "2017-09-20T01:00:07Z")
You can keep an ansible.cfg alongside your playbooks: [http://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/administration/tipsandtricks.html#locate-and-configure-the-ansible-configuration-file](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible-tower/latest/html/administration/tipsandtricks.html#locate-and-configure-the-ansible-configuration-file) (Whew, you sure did send a lot of emails/question in a short period of time) ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Biancaniello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@Mike\_Biancaniello](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_Biancaniello)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:01pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/3 "2017-09-20T13:01:08Z")
So, can I use relative paths in the cfg file (e.g. roles\_path=…/roles/ or roles\_path=…/…/)? I don’t want my playbooks to have to remember the absolute path that might change based on how these are deployed. Will this work with role dependencies? e.g. I have one role that is just libs (modules, plugins, etc) and then other roles that require these. Currently, I list the libs role in the dependencies so that they are loaded and I can use the libs in my role tasks. With normal cmdline ansible, this all works perfectly (my /etc/ansible/ansible.cfg file just sets the roles\_path and I use ansible-galaxy to install all of the roles into the appropriate dir). And yeah, I wanted to try as many things as I could before posting, so I waited until the end of the day to post everything that I couldn’t figure out. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Biancaniello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@Mike\_Biancaniello](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_Biancaniello)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:06pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/4 "2017-09-20T13:06:59Z")
(and thanks for the quick replies to all of my inquiries) ---
**Author:** ![matburt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/matburt/32/3612_2.png) [@matburt](https://forum.ansible.com/u/matburt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/5 "2017-09-20T13:34:35Z")
There’s only one way to find out, try it and see 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Biancaniello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dec6dc/32.png) [@Mike\_Biancaniello](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Mike_Biancaniello)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 2:49pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/sharing-roles/25539/6 "2017-09-20T14:49:58Z")
SOLVED! 1. Mount a docker volume into awx\_tasks to hold all custom things: \:\. 2. Set the ANSIBLE\_CONFIG directory to point to the \. 3. Install the shared roles into the \/roles/ on your host machine. 4. Install a custom ansible.cfg into this dir on your host machine. 5. Set roles\_path=\/roles in the .cfg file. Now, I can import a project and run a playbook that does this: > * * * > > - name: test things > > roles: > > - customrole1 **Detailed example:** 1,2: I made the following change to the docker task (then ran the install.yml playbook): > $ git diff local\_docker/tasks/main.yml > > **diff --git a/installer/local\_docker/tasks/main.yml b/installer/local\_docker/tasks/main.yml** > > **index 7eba9d357…1093bdec9 100644** > > **— a/installer/local\_docker/tasks/main.yml** > > **+++ b/installer/local\_docker/tasks/main.yml** > > @@ -198,7 +198,10 @@ > > links: “{{ awx\_task\_container\_links|list }}” > > user: root > > hostname: awx > > - volumes: > > - > - “/opt/awx:/opt/ansible” > > env: > > - ANSIBLE\_CONFIG: “/opt/ansible/ansible.cfg” > > SECRET\_KEY: “{{ awx\_secret\_key }}” > > DATABASE\_NAME: “{{ pg\_database }}” > > DATABASE\_USER: “{{ pg\_username }}” 3: run: ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml -p /opt/awx/roles/ 4,5: then, on my host machine, I set /opt/awx/ansible.cfg: