Is it possible to combine values of same variable name mentioned in seperate vars file in Ansible

user_11143113 0
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I have two variable files app1.yml and app2.yml having the same variable name viz dbconn

cat app1.yml
dbconn:
  - host1 port1

cat app2.yml
dbconn:
  - host4 port4
  - host5 port5

cat main.yml

   - name: Load Variable Files
     include_vars: "{{ playbook_dir }}/{{ item }}.yml"
     loop: 
       - app1
       - app2
     run_once: yes

   - debug:
       msg: "{{ dbconn }}"

My expectation is that variable dbconn to have values from both the variable files i.e

  - host1 port1
  - host4 port4
  - host5 port5

However, it prints only the last loaded variable file values i.e - host4 port4 and - host5 port5

Can you please suggest?

ansible load variables
2 Answers

you have a specific problem so this playbook is a solution to resolve your problem:

- name: "tips3"
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    appx: [app1, app2]
  tasks:
    - name: Load Variable Files
      include_vars: 
        file: "{{ playbook_dir }}/{{ item }}.yml"
        name: "{{ item }}"
      loop: "{{ appx }}"
      run_once: yes
      
    - name: group var
      set_fact:
        dbconn: "{{dbconn | d([]) + lookup('vars', item )['dbconn'] }}"
      loop: "{{ appx }}"

    - debug:
        msg: "{{ dbconn }}"

the first task gives as variables:

app1:
  dbconn:
    - host1 port1
app2:
  dbconn:
    - host4 port4
    - host5 port5

and the second task concats all lists in one list dbconn:

final result:

ok: [localhost] => {
    "msg": [
        "host1 port1",
        "host4 port4",
        "host5 port5"
    ]
}
user_73807790

Concatenate the lists in the loop. For example,

    - set_fact:
        dbconn: "{{ dbconn|d([]) + (lookup('file', item)|from_yaml).dbconn }}"
      loop:
        - app1.yml
        - app2.yml

gives

dbconn:
  - host1 port1
  - host4 port4
  - host5 port5
user_64825610
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