Ansible: How to use variables defined in inventory file (hosts) in my playbook?

Question

As the subject says. I have some host variables defined in my hosts inventory file. How do I access them in my playbook?

Here is an example. Based on all my research I was expecting foo and bar to be part of hostvars. I can put host specific variables in separate var files, but I would love to keep them in my inventory file "attached" to a host. I don't want to use it in templates. ansible version: 1.3.2, ansible_distribution_version: 6.4

bash $
bash $ ansible --version
ansible 1.3.2
bash $
bash $ cat test_inv.ini

[foobar]
someHost foo="some string" bar=123
someOtherHost foo="some other string" bar=456


bash $
bash $ cat test.yml

---

- name: test variables...
  hosts: all
  vars:
    - some_junk: "1"
#  gather_facts: no # foo and bar are unavailable whether I gather facts or not.
  tasks:
    - debug: msg="hostvars={{hostvars}}"
    - debug: msg="vars={{vars}}"
    - debug: msg="groups={{groups}}"
    - debug: msg="some_junk={{some_junk}}"
#    - debug: msg="???? HOW DO I PRINT values of host specific variables foo and bar defined in inventory file ???"

bash $
bash $
bash $ ansible-playbook -i test_inv.ini test.yml

PLAY [test variables...] ******************************************************

GATHERING FACTS ***************************************************************
ok: [someHost]

TASK: [debug msg="hostvars={{hostvars}}"] *************************************
ok: [someHost] => {"msg": "hostvars={'someHost': {u'facter_operatingsystem': u'RedHat', u'facter_selinux_current_mode': u'enforcing', u'facter_hostname': u'someHost', 'module_setup': True, u'facter_memoryfree_mb': u'1792.70', u'ansible_distribution_version': u'6.4' // ...........snip...........// u'VMware IDE CDR10'}}"}

TASK: [debug msg="vars={{vars}}"] *********************************************
ok: [someHost] => {"msg": "vars={'some_junk': '1', 'delegate_to': None, 'changed_when': None, 'register': None, 'inventory_dir': '/login/sg219898/PPP/automation/ansible', 'always_run': False, 'ignore_errors': False}"}

TASK: [debug msg="groups={{groups}}"] *****************************************
ok: [someHost] => {"msg": "groups={'ungrouped': [], 'foobar': ['someHost'], 'all': ['someHost']}"}

TASK: [debug msg="some_junk=1"] ***********************************************
ok: [someHost] => {"msg": "some_junk=1"}

PLAY RECAP ********************************************************************
someHost                   : ok=5    changed=0    unreachable=0    failed=0  

bash $ 

Bathos

Answer 1

Doing the following should work:
debug: msg="foo={{foo}}"

The foo variable will be evaluated in the context of the current host. Tested locally with ansible 1.3.4.

Othilie

Thanks ! Insanely difficult to figure out which variable will be used and how it can be used in ansible. – Bathos

I have two groups and defined 'foo' var in two groups, then how can ansible select the var in playbook/templates – Louque