# Using group\_vars alongside inventory directories

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-group-vars-alongside-inventory-directories/17352>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [January 22, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-group-vars-alongside-inventory-directories/17352 "2015-01-22T15:34:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Niko\_Felger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/edb3f5/32.png) [@Niko\_Felger](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Niko_Felger)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-group-vars-alongside-inventory-directories/17352/1 "2015-01-22T15:34:41Z")

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Hi,

Is it possible to use a group\_vars/ directory alongside inventory _directories_ (as opposed to files)?

Take this simplified example, which has an inventory file (staging) and an inventory directory (production):

`

$ tree  
.  
└── inventories  
├── group\_vars  
│ └── all.yml  
├── production  
│ └── hosts  
└── staging

`

staging and production/hosts both contain a single host:

`

[localhost]  
127.0.0.1

`

group\_vars/all.yml defines a variable example\_var:

`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tomasz\_Kontusz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@Tomasz\_Kontusz](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Tomasz_Kontusz)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-group-vars-alongside-inventory-directories/17352/2 "2015-01-22T16:27:29Z")

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group\_vars/ should live inside production/. I don’t know any simple way to share those vars (you can always symlink some of them)

Niko Felger [niko@eyequant.com](mailto:niko@eyequant.com) napisał:

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Niko\_Felger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/edb3f5/32.png) [@Niko\_Felger](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Niko_Felger)\
**Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/using-group-vars-alongside-inventory-directories/17352/3 "2015-01-22T16:43:37Z")

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Perfect, thanks Tomasz! This did the trick for me:

`

$ tree  
.  
└── inventories  
├── group\_vars  
│ └── all.yml  
├── production  
│ ├── group\_vars → …/group\_vars  
│ └── hosts  
└── staging

`