Ansible - how to evaluate role_path variable

Question

I'm trying to evaluate the value of the role_path variable in order to use it in other roles as a reference point. The problem is, however, when my variable is used in another role, it has the value of the other role, and not of when it was declared.

I am getting around this by using an echo command of the current variable's value and registering the output as per below.

- name: get ansible base path from current role_path
  command: echo {{ role_path }}/../../
  register: ansible_base_path_out

- name: save ansible base path variable for future use
  set_fact:
    ansible_base_path: "{{ ansible_base_path_out.stdout }}"

Is this the best way to do this or is there a more eloquent solution?

Solution

You can safely use set_fact. Variables (fact) assigned via set_fact are evaluated during task execution time. Shrink your code to only one task:

- name: save ansible base path variable for future use
  set_fact:
    ansible_base_path: "{{ role_path }}/../../"

Apply this role at first and you'll get ansible_base_path fact unchanged throughout entire playbook execution.

Comments

[Jonathan]

Can you have a colon delimited path (with multiple role paths)? I have subrepos with roles

[Konstantin Suvorov]

Not sure what you mean. role_path is the current role’s pathname.