ansible.windows.win_environment – Modify environment variables on windows hosts

Note

This plugin is part of the ansible.windows collection (version 1.7.3).

You might already have this collection installed if you are using the ansible package. It is not included in ansible-core. To check whether it is installed, run ansible-galaxy collection list.

To install it, use: ansible-galaxy collection install ansible.windows.

To use it in a playbook, specify: ansible.windows.win_environment.

Synopsis

Uses .net Environment to set or remove environment variables and can set at User, Machine or Process level.
User level environment variables will be set, but not available until the user has logged off and on again.

Parameters

Parameter	Choices/Defaults	Comments
level string / required	Choices: machine process user	The level at which to set the environment variable. Use `machine` to set for all users. Use `user` to set for the current user that ansible is connected as. Use `process` to set for the current process. Probably not that useful.
name string		The name of the environment variable. Required when state=absent.
state string	Choices: absent present	Set to `present` to ensure environment variable is set. Set to `absent` to ensure it is removed. When using variables, do not set this option.
value string		The value to store in the environment variable. Must be set when state=present and cannot be an empty string. Should be omitted for state=absent and variables.
variables dictionary added in 1.3.0 of ansible.windows		A dictionary where multiple environment variables can be defined at once. Not valid when state is set. Variables with a value will be set (`present`) and variables with an empty value will be unset (`absent`). level applies to all vars defined this way.

Notes

Note

This module is best-suited for setting the entire value of an environment variable. For safe element-based management of path-like environment vars, use the ansible.windows.win_path module.
This module does not broadcast change events. This means that the minority of windows applications which can have their environment changed without restarting will not be notified and therefore will need restarting to pick up new environment settings. User level environment variables will require the user to log out and in again before they become available.
In the return, before_value and value will be set to the last values when using variables. It’s best to use values in that case if you need to find a specific variable’s before and after values.

Examples

- name: Set an environment variable for all users
  ansible.windows.win_environment:
    state: present
    name: TestVariable
    value: Test value
    level: machine

- name: Remove an environment variable for the current user
  ansible.windows.win_environment:
    state: absent
    name: TestVariable
    level: user

- name: Set several variables at once
  ansible.windows.win_environment:
    level: machine
    variables:
      TestVariable: Test value
      CUSTOM_APP_VAR: 'Very important value'
      ANOTHER_VAR: '{{ my_ansible_var }}'

- name: Set and remove multiple variables at once
  ansible.windows.win_environment:
    level: user
    variables:
      TestVariable: Test value
      CUSTOM_APP_VAR: 'Very important value'
      ANOTHER_VAR: '{{ my_ansible_var }}'
      UNWANTED_VAR: ''  # < this will be removed

Return Values

Common return values are documented here, the following are the fields unique to this module:

Key	Returned	Description
before_value string	always	the value of the environment key before a change, this is null if it didn't exist Sample: C:\Windows\System32
value string	always	the value the environment key has been set to, this is null if removed Sample: C:\Program Files\jdk1.8
values dictionary added in 1.3.0 of ansible.windows	always	dictionary of before and after values; each key is a variable name, each value is another dict with `before`, `after`, and `changed` keys

Authors

Jon Hawkesworth (@jhawkesworth)
Brian Scholer (@briantist)

© 2012–2018 Michael DeHaan
© 2018–2021 Red Hat, Inc.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3.
https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/windows/win_environment_module.html

Docs

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