Cannot use "inventory.links.group_vars" together "inventory.host_vars"

Issue type

• Feature request
• Question

molecule and ansible version

$ molecule --version
molecule 3.0.6
   ansible==2.9.11 python==3.8

$ ansible --version
ansible 2.9.11

Desired Behavior

I would like to configure the following settings in “provisioner.inventory” of “molecule.yml”.

provisioner:
  ... snip ...
  inventory:
    host_vars:
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-1:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.11"
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-2:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.12"
    links:
      group_vars: ${GROUP_VARS}
  ... snip ...

As you can see from this snippet, here is a summary of what I want to set up.

• Specify the link indicated by ${GROUP_VARS} in group_vars
• Include host_vars in molecule.yml.

Actual Behaviour

However, in practice, only the setting of group_vars:${GROUP_VARS} in inventory.links applies. inventory.host_vars will be ignored.

Conversely, if you remove inventory.links, host_vars is not ignored.

provisioner:
  ... snip ...
  inventory:
    host_vars:
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-1:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.11"
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-2:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.12"
    #links:
    #   group_vars: ${GROUP_VARS}
  ... snip ...

In referring to the molecule source code, it seems that the conditional branching is based only on the presence or absence of inventory.links.

https://github.com/ansible-community/molecule/blob/17c5da0e831a36f226769029d6452d8d0d692fd7/molecule/provisioner/ansible.py#L767-L778

If we can’t use inventory.links.group_vars and inventory.group_vars together, then that’s understandable, but if you can’t use inventory.links.group_vars and inventory.host_vars together, then very inconvenient.

I would therefore like to request the following features.

• The feature to use inventory.links.group_vars and inventory.host_vars together.
• The feature to use inventory.links.host_vars and inventory.group_vars together.

Alternatively, I would like to know if there is a way to make this work as you wish without modifying the source code.

Best regards.

My molecule.yml and converge.yml

molecule.yml

---
dependency:
  name: galaxy

driver:
  name: lxd

lint: |
  set -e
  ansible-lint ${ROLE_DIR}

platforms:
  - name: ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-1
    source:
      alias: ubuntu/${MOLECULE_DISTRO}/amd64

  - name: ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-2
    source:
      alias: ubuntu/${MOLECULE_DISTRO}/amd64

provisioner:
  name: ansible
  playbooks:
    create: ${CREATE_YML}
    destroy: ${DESTROY_YML}
    converge: ./playbooks/converge.yml
  optoins:
    diff: true
  inventory:
    host_vars:
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-1:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.11"
      ${MOLECULE_DISTRO}-${ANSIBLE_VER}-2:
        ipv4_address: "192.168.1.12"
    links:
      group_vars: ${GROUP_VARS}

verifier:
  name: testinfra
  directory: ${TESTINFRA_DIR}
  options:
    s: true
    v: true

converge.yml

---
- name: Converge
  hosts: all
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: debug
      debug:
        msg: "{{ ipv4_address }}"

[thehybridtechnician]

Thank you @y-hashida for opening this ticket up. I was just getting ready to do the same thing. 😃

[zhan9san]

Do we still need this feature? If yes, I’d like to look into it.