When the current role is being executed by means of an :ref:`include_role <include_role_module>` or :ref:`import_role <import_role_module>` action, this variable contains a list of all parent roles, with the most recent role (i.e. the role that included/imported this role) being the first item in the list.
When multiple inclusions occur, this list lists the *last* role (i.e. the role that included this role) as the *first* item in the list. It is also possible that a specific role exists more than once in this list.
For example: When role **A** includes role **B**, inside role B, ``ansible_parent_role_names`` will equal to ``['A']``. If role **B** then includes role **C**, the list becomes ``['B', 'A']``.
ansible_parent_role_paths
When the current role is being executed by means of an :ref:`include_role <include_role_module>` or :ref:`import_role <import_role_module>` action, this variable contains a list of all parent roles, with the most recent role (i.e. the role that included/imported this role) being the first item in the list.
Please refer to ``ansible_parent_role_names`` for the order of items in this list.
Dictionary/map that contains information about the current running version of ansible, it has the following keys: full, major, minor, revision and string.
group_names
List of groups the current host is part of
groups
A dictionary/map with all the groups in inventory and each group has the list of hosts that belong to it
hostvars
A dictionary/map with all the hosts in inventory and variables assigned to them
inventory_hostname
The inventory name for the 'current' host being iterated over in the play
inventory_hostname_short
The short version of `inventory_hostname`
inventory_dir
The directory of the inventory source in which the `inventory_hostname` was first defined
inventory_file
The file name of the inventory source in which the `inventory_hostname` was first defined
Connection variables are normally used to set the specifics on how to execute actions on a target. Most of them correspond to connection plugins, but not all are specific to them; other plugins like shell, terminal and become are normally involved.
Only the common ones are described as each connection/become/shell/etc plugin can define its own overrides and specific variables.
See :ref:`general_precedence_rules` for how connection variables interact with :ref:`configuration settings<ansible_configuration_settings>`, :ref:`command-line options<command_line_tools>`, and :ref:`playbook keywords<playbook_keywords>`.
