Ansible Read Environment Variable: lookup('env') Plugin Guide — Video Tutorial

How to read environment variables in Ansible with the env lookup plugin. Access PATH, HOME, USER variables in playbooks.

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Tutorial summary

What you'll learn

How to read an environment variable on Ansible Controller with Ansible?
Ansible read an environment variable
Parameters and Return Value
Parameters
Return Values
code
execution
idempotency
Conclusion
Reading Environment Variables

How to read an environment variable on Ansible Controller with Ansible? I'm going to show you a live Playbook with some simple Ansible code. I'm Luca Berton and welcome to today's episode of Ansible Pilot. Ansible read an environment variable - ansible.builtin.env - Read the value of environment variables Let's deep dive into the Ansible lookup plugin env. Plugins are a way to expand the Ansible functionality. With lookup plugins specifically, you can load variables or templates with information from external sources. The full name is `ansible.builtin.env`, it's part of `ansible-core` and is included in all Ansible installations. The purpose of the `env` lookup plugin is to read the value of environment variables. Parameters and Return Value Parameters - \_terms string - Environment variable Return Values - \_raw list - Values from the environment variables The parameters of plugin env. The only required parameter is the default "\_terms", with the name of the environment variable to read. The normal usage is to assign the lookup plugin to a variable name but you could use it in your Ansible task directly. ## Playbook Read an environment variable with Ansible Playbook. code ```yaml --- - name: environment Playbook hosts: all tasks: - name: display HOME ansible.builtin.debug: msg: "{{ lookup('env', 'HOME') }}" ``` execution ```bash ansible-pilot $ printenv | grep HOME HOME=/Users/lberton ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory ansible\ statements/environment.yml PLAY [environment Playbook] *************************************************************************** TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************** ok: [demo.example.com] TASK [display HOME] ******************************************************************************* ok: [demo.example.com] => { "msg": "/Users/lberton" } PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************** demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 ansible-pilot $ ``` idempotency ``` ansible-pilot $ printenv | grep HOME HOME=/Users/lberton ansible-pilot $ ansible-playbook -i virtualmachines/demo/inventory ansible\ statements/environment.yml PLAY [environment Playbook] *************************************************************************** TASK [Gathering Facts] **************************************************************************** ok: [demo.example.com] TASK [display HOME] ******************************************************************************* ok: [demo.example.com] => { "msg": "/Users/lberton" } PLAY RECAP **************************************************************************************** demo.example.com : ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0 ansible-pilot $ ``` Conclusion Now you know h

About this tutorial

Author: Luca Berton
Difficulty: Beginner
Read time: 4 min
Category: installation

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