# Trying to understand retrieving environment variables on a remote server **URL:** \ **Category:** Get Help\ **Created:** [August 18, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trying-to-understand-retrieving-environment-variables-on-a-remote-server/44319 "2025-08-18T17:11:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![araczek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e5b9ba/32.png) [@araczek](https://forum.ansible.com/u/araczek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trying-to-understand-retrieving-environment-variables-on-a-remote-server/44319/1 "2025-08-18T17:11:35Z")
## I am new to ansible an I am running through some tutorials. I got stuck with trying to enumerate a specific variable on a remote host. On a "remote host: (RH9.6 in Virtualbox) I set an environment variable, i,e, export JAVA\_HOME=/opt/tmp . In my yaml file on the control node I have ‘gather\_facts: yes’. Below is the code: - name: variable example hosts: 192.168.86.43 gather\_facts: yes When I run this I get ‘the task includes an option with an undefined variable…ansible\_env’ . What am I missing? If I enumerate all variables it works, sor of. If I enumerate all variables it does not include the variable I set with the export command. If I go to the remote machine and type ‘env’ and I see the variable i set. If I choose to enumerate ‘ansible\_env.HOSTNAME’ which I KNOW is there I get the same error. Spent way too much time on this. Help! Ty. Ignore the text in the middle of this post , they were comments ---
**Author:** ![Lyle\_McKarns](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/lyle_mckarns/32/8142_2.png) [@Lyle\_McKarns](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Lyle_McKarns)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 6:21pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trying-to-understand-retrieving-environment-variables-on-a-remote-server/44319/2 "2025-08-18T18:21:25Z")
How are you exporting the variables you want ansible to have access to? A command like `export JAVA_HOME=/opt/tmp` is only valid for the user session that created it. For it to be accessible to ansible, it would need to be set in for that login shell. ---
**Author:** ![araczek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e5b9ba/32.png) [@araczek](https://forum.ansible.com/u/araczek)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:19pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trying-to-understand-retrieving-environment-variables-on-a-remote-server/44319/3 "2025-08-18T19:19:06Z")
Not sure i follow “ how are you exporting…”. I am not . I gave export as an example of how I set the variable on the target machine. I “kind of” understand the problem might be context. There is a user called ‘Alan’ on the target machine and logged in as that user I ran the export command to set a variable. I then tried running the Ansible playbook as described to try and enumerate that variable and it fails. How would I export all variables then via Ansible? ---
**Author:** ![vbotka](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/ansible/user_avatar/forum.ansible.com/vbotka/32/359_2.png) [@vbotka](https://forum.ansible.com/u/vbotka)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/trying-to-understand-retrieving-environment-variables-on-a-remote-server/44319/4 "2025-08-18T19:38:51Z")
> [@araczek](#): > > msg: “Java is installed at: {{ absible\_env.JAVA\_HOME }}” [setup](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/setup_module.html) provides you with **ansible\_env**. For example, ```yaml - setup: gather_subset: env - debug: var: ansible_env ``` gives ```yaml ansible_env: BLOCKSIZE: K HOME: /home/admin LANG: C.UTF-8 LOGNAME: admin MAIL: /var/mail/admin MM_CHARSET: UTF-8 PATH: /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/home/admin/bin PWD: /home/admin SHELL: /bin/sh SSH_CLIENT: 10.1.0.27 33152 22 SSH_CONNECTION: 10.1.0.27 33152 10.1.0.157 22 TERM: su USER: admin ``` The command **sh -c set** provides you with the same (with the addition of IFS and PS\*) ```yaml - command: sh -c set register: out - debug: var: out.stdout ``` gives ```yaml out.stdout: |- BLOCKSIZE=K HOME=/home/admin IFS=$' \t ' LANG=C.UTF-8 LOGNAME=admin MAIL=/var/mail/admin MM_CHARSET=UTF-8 OPTIND=1 PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/home/admin/bin PPID=53530 PS1='$ ' PS2='> ' PS4='+ ' PWD=/home/admin SHELL=/bin/sh SSH_CLIENT='10.1.0.27 33152 22' SSH_CONNECTION='10.1.0.27 33152 10.1.0.157 22' TERM=su USER=admin ``` Try ```yaml - command: bash -c set register: out - debug: var: out.stdout ``` You can use the [environment](https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbook_guide/playbooks_environment.html) keyword if **JAVA\_HOME** isn’t set. For example, ```yaml - command: sh -c 'echo Java is installed at $JAVA_HOME' register: out environment: JAVA_HOME: /opt/tmp - debug: var: out.stdout ``` gives ```yaml out.stdout: Java is installed at /opt/tmp ```