Change where Ansible looks for files - ansible

Question

My directory structure looks like this
playbooks/
Foo.yml
tasks/
Task1.yml
Task2.yml
AllTasks.yml
The Foo.yml playbook has a - import_tasks: tasks/AllTasks.yml task. AllTasks.yml has
- import_tasks: tasks/Task1.yml
- import_tasks: tasks/Task2.yml
This works perfectly fine when I execute playbook Foo.yml. But when I execute a playbook located elsewhere (so not directly in this playbooks directory), the imports no longer work. The reason for this is that they import relative to the location of the imported playbook.
The same happens with tasks using other modules, such as copy. They look for files relative to the playbook location.
Is there a way to make my tasks work for playbooks located in different directories?
I know there is a playbook_dir variable which sadly I cannot override. I also came across inventory_dir, but for whatever reason that one is not defined.
A way to reference files relative to the file the reference is made in would work. Example:
- import_tasks: "{{ current_dir }}/Task1.yml"
- import_tasks: "{{ current_dir }}/Task2.yml"
Something relative to the inventory file of this project would also work. Example:
- import_tasks: "{{ inventory_dir }}/playbooks/tasks/Task1.yml"
- import_tasks: "{{ inventory_dir }}/playbooks/tasks/Task2.yml"
This latter approach would force me to add these paths all over the project though.

Answer 1

Q: "playbook_dir variable which sadly I cannot override"
A: The variable playbook_dir works as expected (but it's not needed in this case; see the second part under the line)
shell> cd /scratch/tmp
shell> cat Foo.yml
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- import_tasks: "{{ playbook_dir }}/tasks/AllTasks.yml"
shell> cat tasks/AllTasks.yml
- import_tasks: "{{ playbook_dir }}/tasks/Task1.yml"
- import_tasks: "{{ playbook_dir }}/tasks/Task2.yml"
shell> cat tasks/Task1.yml
- debug:
msg: Task1.yml
shell> cat tasks/Task2.yml
- debug:
msg: Task2.yml
shell> cd /tmp
shell> pwd
/tmp
shell> ansible-playbook /scratch/tmp/Foo.yml
PLAY [localhost] ****
TASK [debug] ****
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Task1.yml"
}
TASK [debug] ****
ok: [localhost] => {
"msg": "Task2.yml"
}
PLAY RECAP ****
localhost: ok=2 changed=0 unreachable=0 failed=0 skipped=0 rescued=0 ignored=0
Q: "Change where Ansible looks for files"
A: No changes are needed. The defaults work fine. See Search paths in Ansible. The values of the variable ansible_search_path below explain why the paths are working
shell> cat Foo.yml
- hosts: localhost
tasks:
- debug:
var: ansible_search_path
- import_tasks: tasks/AllTasks.yml
shell> cat tasks/AllTasks.yml
- debug:
var: ansible_search_path
- import_tasks: Task1.yml
- import_tasks: Task2.yml
shell> cat tasks/Task1.yml
- debug:
msg: Task1.yml
shell> cat tasks/Task2.yml
- debug:
msg: Task2.yml
give
"ansible_search_path": [
"/scratch/tmp"
]
"ansible_search_path": [
"/scratch/tmp/tasks",
"/scratch/tmp"
]
"msg": "Task1.yml"
"msg": "Task2.yml"