merge_var_files

Ansible action plugin that, given a list of files and/or paths, recursively merges the contents of those files.

Heavily derived from Ansible's include_vars action plugin (that disguises itself as a module), so all its rules and functionality should apply seamlessly, with the exception that the parameter file (string) is replaced by files (list).

Merge strategy

When merging, the following strategy is applied:

• non-existing items are added
• if data types differ, the new item overrides the previous one
• dictionaries are merged recursively
• all other values are overridden by the newer item

Testing

Tests are executed using tox, and the following combinations are tested:

Python	Ansible
2.7	2.8 (latest)
2.7	2.9 (latest)
3.7	2.8 (latest)
3.7	2.9 (latest)

Example usage

- name: load and merge vars from all files
  merge_var_files:
    name: my_merged_data
    files:
      - default.yml
      - '{{ ansible_os_family }}.yml'
      - '{{ ansible_os_distribution }}.yml'