ansible/examples/playbooks/prompts.yml

---

# it is possible to ask for variables from the user at the start
# of a playbook run, for example, as part of a release script.

- hosts: all
  user: root

# regular variables are a dictionary of keys and values

  vars:
     this_is_a_regular_var: 'moo'
     so_is_this: 'quack'

# prompted variables are a list of variable names and a description
# that will be presented to the user.
#
# alternatively, they can ALSO be passed in from the outside:
#    ansible-playbook foo.yml --extra-vars="foo=100 bar=101"
# or through external inventory scripts (see online API docs)

  vars_prompt:
     release_version: "product release version"

  tasks:

# this is just a simple example to show that vars_prompt works, but
# you might ask for a tag to use with the git module or perhaps
# a package version to use with the yum module.

  - name: imagine this did something interesting with $release_version
    action: shell echo foo >> /tmp/$release_version-$alpha