# Variable to copy ansible inventory file **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [February 3, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287 "2013-02-03T21:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Blair\_Zajac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Blair\_Zajac](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Blair_Zajac)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/1 "2013-02-03T21:37:01Z")
Following the DRY principle, I'd like to copy ansible's host file to managed hosts so tools on there can find critical servers, e.g. [zookeepers] 192.168.2.2 192.168.2.3 192.168.2.4 And then tools can parse this for the list of zookeepers when they start up to know who to talk to. I looked for a variable that I could use for the copy module but didn't find any. I use use a template for this, but that seems like extra work. Thanks, Blair ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/2 "2013-02-03T21:41:16Z")
Are you saying you want to use ansible's host file to generate /etc/hosts on the remotes? ---
**Author:** ![jpmens1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jpmens1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/jpmens1)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/3 "2013-02-04T07:08:58Z")
> Following the DRY principle, I'd like to copy ansible's host file to > managed hosts so tools on there can find critical servers, e.g. > > [zookeepers] > 192.168.2.2 > 192.168.2.3 > 192.168.2.4 > > And then tools can parse this for the list of zookeepers when they > start up to know who to talk to. I don't believe that's possible and even so, I think you're better off creating a special file on your target servers. I do this with something like this:             - action: template src=hostfile.in dest=/tmp/hostfile with the template (hostfile.in) containing         {% for k, v in hostvars.iteritems() -%}         {{ hostvars[k]['ansible\_default\_ipv4']['address'] }} {{ k }} {{ v['ansible\_hostname'] }}         {% endfor %} Check for the exact syntax to get your 'zookeepers' group.         -JP ---
**Author:** ![Blair\_Zajac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Blair\_Zajac](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Blair_Zajac)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/4 "2013-02-04T21:30:04Z")
I don’t want to replace /etc/hosts, but to make a file named /opt/orcaware/etc/hosts.ini, and all the tools in /opt/orcaware would read it. Blair ---
**Author:** ![Blair\_Zajac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Blair\_Zajac](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Blair_Zajac)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/5 "2013-02-04T21:32:33Z")
This file would be picked up by other scripts to find the zookeeper hostname/IP addresses, so it doesn’t need to be in zookeeper format. Even in this case, having a path to hostfile.in that comes from the env or the -i command line argument would be easier. I agree with what you’re saying though, if you have a single file and you add another, say PostgreSQL host, then you would want to bounce or kill -HUP the processes using the Zookeeper IPs, even though those haven’t changed, so splitting up each set of services into a separate file lets you use Ansible changed feature to avoid spurious bounces. Blair ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/6 "2013-02-04T21:52:20Z")
You are able to traverse groups in a Jinja2 for loop and access variables via hostvars. But you're going to want to build a template. I think this is fine, really. ---
**Author:** ![Blair\_Zajac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Blair\_Zajac](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Blair_Zajac)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/7 "2013-02-05T00:44:32Z")
But is there a variable to use even to pass to src= for a template? - action: template src=${anside\_something} dest=/tmp/hostfile ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/8 "2013-02-05T01:05:22Z")
You can absolutely pass variables to anything in an action line. ---
**Author:** ![Blair\_Zajac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@Blair\_Zajac](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Blair_Zajac)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 1:10am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/9 "2013-02-05T01:10:16Z")
I know, I use them 🙂 But I couldn't find one that points to the hosts file that ansible uses, is there one? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2013, 11:51am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/variable-to-copy-ansible-inventory-file/12287/10 "2013-02-05T11:51:35Z")
there is not.