Querying ansible global group variables via (python)

Question

I'm trying to query global group variables set in Ansible. I seem to be getting an empty dictionary and I'm not sure what else I can do. My code looks like this:

def __init__(self, inventory_path=None):
    self.loader = DataLoader()
    self.variable_manager = VariableManager()
    self.inventory = Inventory(loader=self.loader, variable_manager=self.variable_manager, host_list=inventory_path)
    self.variable_manager.set_inventory(self.inventory)

when I then try to get group vars as below:

    inventory_asg_groups = filter(lambda g: 'asg' in g, self.inventory.groups)
    for group in inventory_asg_groups:
        print(self.inventory.get_group_vars(self.inventory.get_group(group)))

I get an empty dictionary:

{}

when I just do a:

    print(self.inventory.localhost.vars)

I get this:

{'ansible_python_interpreter': '/usr/local/opt/python/bin/python2.7', 'ansible_connection': 'local'}

I know the inventory is being loaded, since I list all the groups in the inventory. How do I get the variables listed in group_vars/all via the python ansible api?

Answer 1

This actually works if you have group-specific variables defined (group_vars/.yml). This is because get_group_vars directly read 'all' you can use self.inventory.get_group_vars(self.inventory.get_group('all')).

Full example below:

dirt/hosts

# hosts
[asg_2]

localhost1

[asg_1]
localhost2

[something]
localhost3

dir/group_vars/all.yml

setting_something: "5"

dir/group_vars/ags_1.yml

setting_something: "6500"

dir/ansible_loader.py

from ansible.parsing.dataloader import DataLoader
from ansible.vars import VariableManager
from ansible.inventory import Inventory

class AnsibleLoader:
    def __init__(self, inventory_path=None):
        self.loader = DataLoader()
        self.variable_manager = VariableManager()
        self.inventory = Inventory(loader=self.loader, variable_manager=self.variable_manager, host_list=inventory_path)
        self.variable_manager.set_inventory(self.inventory)

        inventory_asg_groups = filter(lambda g: 'asg' in g, self.inventory.groups)

        print(inventory_asg_groups)
        for group in inventory_asg_groups:
            print('vars for: %s' % group)
            print(self.inventory.get_group_vars(self.inventory.get_group(group)))

        print(self.inventory.get_group_vars(self.inventory.get_group('all')))


AnsibleLoader(inventory_path='hosts')

Output

[u'asg_2', u'asg_1']
vars for: asg_2
{}
vars for: asg_1
{u'setting_something': u'6500'}
{u'setting_something': u'5'}

So it prints values for asg_1 as it has file in group_vars, but not for asg_2. Last line is accessing 'all'

All done with ansible 2.0, not sure which version you use.