How to set Linux environment variables with Ansible

Question

Hi I am trying to find out how to set environment variable with Ansible   something that a simple shell command like this   EXPORT LC ALL C   tried as shell command and got an error tried using the environment module and nothing happend   what am I missing

User · Answer

Here s a quick local task to permanently set key values on  etc environment  which is system-wide  all users    - name  populate  etc environment   lineinfile      dest    etc environment      state  present     regexp       item key          line      item key       item value      with items      os environment       and the vars for it   os environment    - key  DJANGO SETTINGS MODULE      value   websec prod settings     - key  DJANGO SUPER USER      value   admin   and  yes  if you ssh out and back in  env shows the new environment variables

User · Answer

There are multiple ways to do this and from your question it s nor clear what you need   1  If you need environment variable to be defined PER TASK ONLY  you do this    - hosts  dev   tasks      - name  Echo my env var       shell   echo  MY ENV VARIABLE        environment          MY ENV VARIABLE  whatever value      - name  Echo my env var again       shell   echo  MY ENV VARIABLE     Note that MY ENV VARIABLE is available ONLY for the first task  environment does not set it permanently on your system   TASK   Echo my env var                                                           changed   192 168 111 222    gt    changed   true   cmd    echo  MY ENV VARIABLE        stdout    whatever value    TASK   Echo my env var again                                                     changed   192 168 111 222    gt    changed   true   cmd    echo  MY ENV VARIABLE        stdout         Hopefully soon using environment will also be possible on play level  not only task level as above  There s currently a pull request open for this feature on Ansible s GitHub  https   github com ansible ansible pull 8651  UPDATE  It s now merged as of Jan 2  2015   2  If you want permanent environment variable   system wide   only for certain user  You should look into how you do it in your Linux distribution   shell  there are multiple places for that  For example in Ubuntu you define that in files like for example        profile  etc environment  etc profile d directory        You will find Ubuntu docs about it here  https   help ubuntu com community EnvironmentVariables  After all for setting environment variable in ex  Ubuntu you can just use lineinfile module from Ansible and add desired line to certain file  Consult your OS docs to know where to add it to make it permanent

User · Answer

I did not have enough reputation to comment and hence am adding a new answer  Gasek answer is quite correct  Just one thing  if you are updating the  bash profile file or the  etc profile  those changes would be reflected only after you do a new login  In case you want to set the env variable and then use it in subsequent tasks in the same playbook  consider adding those environment variables in the  bashrc file  I guess the reason behind this is the login and the non-login shells  Ansible  while executing different tasks  reads the parameters from a  bashrc file instead of the  bash profile or the  etc profile  As an example  if I updated my path variable to include the custom binary in the  bash profile file of the respective user and then did a source of the file  The next subsequent tasks won t recognize my command  However if you update in the  bashrc file  the command would work   - name  Adding the path in the bashrc files    lineinfile  dest  root  bashrc line  export PATH  PATH path-to-mysql bin  insertafter  EOF  regexp  export PATH   PATH path-to-mysql bin  state present   -  - name  Source the bashrc file    shell  source  root  bashrc   - name  Start the mysql client    shell  mysql -e  quot show databases quot    This would work  but had I done it using profile files the mysql -e  quot show databases quot  would have given an error  - name  Adding the path in the Profile files    lineinfile  dest  root  bash profile line  export PATH  PATH   install path     mysql folder name   bin  insertafter  EOF  regexp  export PATH   PATH   install path     mysql folder name   bin  state present   - name  Source the bash profile file    shell  source  root  bash profile   - name  Start the mysql client    shell  mysql -e  quot show databases quot    This one won t work  if we have all these tasks in the same playbook

User · Answer

For persistently setting environment variables  you can use one of the existing roles over at Ansible Galaxy  I recommend weareinteractive environment   Using ansible-galaxy     ansible-galaxy install weareinteractive environment   Using requirements yml   - src  franklinkim environment   Then in your playbook   - hosts  all   sudo  yes   roles      - role  franklinkim environment       environment config          NODE ENV  staging         DATABASE NAME  staging

User · Answer

This is the best option  As said Michal Gasek  first answer   since the pull request was merged  https   github com ansible ansible pull 8651    we are able to set permanent environment variables easily by play level        - hosts  all   roles       - php      - nginx   environment      MY ENV VARIABLE  whatever value

[linux] How to set Linux environment variables with Ansible

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