Ansible - How to add/modify PATH variable in CentOS? - centos

Question

I'm trying to add /usr/pgsql-10/bin to $PATH, since I want everybody who uses the machine, to be able to run the psql command.
Tried to follow this example:
- name: add {{extra_path}} to path
lineinfile:
dest: /etc/environment
state: present
backrefs: yes
regexp: 'PATH=(["]*)((?!.*?{{extra_path}}).*?)(["]*)$'
line: "PATH=\1\2:{{extra_path}}\3"
First of all, I don't quite understand how should I exactly modify this.
Should I replace just the extra_path or the whole {{extra_path}} with my path (/usr/pgsql-10/bin).
I tried either way and I get different errors.
To makes matters worse, my /etc/environment doesn't even contain PATH.

Answer 1

Declare additional path only
vars:
extra_path: /usr/pgsql-10/bin
The tasks below are based on the idea from Response to updating PATH with ansible - system wide
If the file is at the controller test the local file
- name: 'Add {{ extra_path }} if PATH does not exist'
lineinfile:
path: /etc/environment
line: 'PATH="{{ extra_path }}"'
insertafter: EOF
when: lookup('file', '/etc/environment') is not search('^\s*PATH\s*=')
- name: 'Add {{ extra_path }} to PATH'
lineinfile:
path: /etc/environment
regexp: 'PATH=(["])((?!.*?{{ extra_path }}).*?)(["])$'
line: 'PATH=\1\2:{{ extra_path }}\3'
backrefs: yes
If the files are on the remote hosts fetch them first. To make the play idempotent don't report changes on fetching. Fit the destination to your needs
- name: 'Fetch /etc/environment to {{ playbook_dir }}/environments'
fetch:
src: /etc/environment
dest: "{{ playbook_dir }}/environments"
changed_when: false
- name: 'Add {{ extra_path }} if PATH does not exist'
lineinfile:
path: /etc/environment
line: 'PATH="{{ extra_path }}"'
insertafter: EOF
when: lookup('file', path) is not search('^\s*PATH\s*=')
vars:
path: "{{ path_items|path_join }}"
path_items:
- "{{ playbook_dir }}"
- environments
- "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
- etc/environment
- name: 'Add {{ extra_path }} to PATH'
lineinfile:
path: /etc/environment
regexp: 'PATH=(["])((?!.*?{{ extra_path }}).*?)(["])$'
line: 'PATH=\1\2:{{ extra_path }}\3'
backrefs: yes
See Python regex.