Ansible - Set environment path as inventory variable - path

Question

Osmc media player needs a specific path for playbooks
https://github.com/osmc/osmc/issues/319
environment:
PATH: "{{ ansible_env.PATH }}:/sbin:/usr/sbin"
I was wondering whether I can set this as an environmental variable in the inventory for those machines, rather than have it in every playbook or create separate playbooks.
In common usage - is that path likely to cause problems for general *nix machines if it is implemented on non-osmc installations?
If you can't set this an an inventory variable:
Is that just because it's no implemented/ useful to most?
Or because the inventory has no relation to path - e.g. it's not invoked at that point?
Or is a better way for all of this to have it as a machine specific variable/ task in a role?
How would that look please?
New to ansible and still trying to get my head round some of the concepts.

Answer 1

As said, the environment keyword can be used only at task or playbook level.
You will be able to use an standard playbook just adding the following:
---
- name: Environment
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: False
tasks:
- name: Setup
setup:
gather_subset:
- "!all"
or
---
- name: Environment
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: True
gather_subset:
- "!all"
If you debug the variable:
---
- name: Environment
hosts: localhost
connection: local
gather_facts: False
tasks:
- name: Setup
setup:
gather_subset:
- "!all"
- name: Debug
debug:
var: ansible_env.PATH
You will get something like:
TASK [Setup] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost]
TASK [Debug] *******************************************************************************************************************************************************
ok: [localhost] => {
"ansible_env.PATH": "/Users/imjoseangel/source/venv/ansible/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
}
And what if you want to pass that variable to another play with different inventory?
Just do hostvars.localhost.ansible_env.PATH
- name: Environment2
hosts: windows
connection: local
gather_facts: False
tasks:
- name: Debug
debug:
var: hostvars.localhost.ansible_env.PATH
So the
environment:
PATH: "{{ ansible_env.PATH }}:/sbin:/usr/sbin"
Will be valid only with gather_facts or setup module under the defined inventory but you don't need to split playbooks.