Special variable "inventory_dir" is filled in incorrectly

[Elbje]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

SUMMARY

The special variable "inventory_dir" has the wrong value according to the ansible docs.

ENVIRONMENT

• AWX version: 9.1.1
• AWX install method: kubernetes
• Ansible version: 2.8.5
• Operating System: MacOS 10.15.2
• Web Browser: Chrome

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

When using a project from GIT the inventory_dir is incorrect.
Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a directory inside the root called "inventory".
2. Create a directory inside the directory "inventory" called "myTest"
3. Create an "inventory.ini" file inside "myTest"
4. Run a playbook against a host defined in inventory.ini
5. Put a file you want to copy to the remote host.
6. if using {{ inventory_dir }}/file_i_want_to_copy.yml awx throws an error "Could not find or access".

EXPECTED RESULTS

As described in the docs https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/reference_appendices/special_variables.html inventory_dir should be filled in with the directory where your host is first defined in the inventory file, in my case /inventory/myTest/

ACTUAL RESULTS

inventory_dir points at the root of my project.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

[ryanpetrello]

@Elbje

if using {{ inventory_dir }}/file_i_want_to_copy.yml awx throws an error "Could not find or access".

Is there more context of the error you're seeing here? Perhaps more verbosity, or a traceback?

[Elbje]

@ryanpetrello it is just a file not found error because the inventory_dir variable is filled in differently when running in awx. Running the playbook locally using Ansible (2.8.5) works fine because the inventory_dir variable is filled in correctly there. I use the inventory_dir variable to construct the rest of my paths (eg. Filepaths for files I want to copy form local to remote host)

Thanks for your comment, If you need any more information please let me know!

[wenottingham]

AWX gathers inventory by connecting to the database to pull information on the imported inventory. There is not an inventory directory in this context; it will likely be set to a temporary directory where this inventory is pulled. You'll need to calculate this differently.

[ng-bsy]

@wenottingham

AWX gathers inventory by connecting to the database to pull information on the imported inventory. There is not an inventory directory in this context; it will likely be set to a temporary directory where this inventory is pulled. You'll need to calculate this differently.

Knowing all the internals and specifics of AWX... could you specify, how we would do that exactly?
Did I overlook it in the documentation?
Surely it has been documented, as it's obviously not working in compliance with Ansible.
Thanks in advance.