Since host variables are becoming important, it did not make sense to sustain --override-hosts, with the ability

to create hosts that didn't have inventory information, but also existed, in various groups.

bin/ansible-playbook

@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ def main(args):
     # create parser for CLI options
     usage = "%prog playbook.yml"
     parser = utils.base_parser(constants=C, usage=usage, connect_opts=True, runas_opts=True)
-    parser.add_option('-O', '--override-hosts', dest="override_hosts", default=None,
-        help="run playbook against these hosts regardless of inventory settings")
     parser.add_option('-e', '--extra-vars', dest="extra_vars", default=None,
         help="set additional key=value variables from the CLI")
 
@@ -54,9 +52,6 @@ def main(args):
     if options.sudo_user:
         options.sudo = True
     options.sudo_user = options.sudo_user or C.DEFAULT_SUDO_USER
-    override_hosts = None
-    if options.override_hosts:
-        override_hosts = options.override_hosts.split(",")
     extra_vars = utils.parse_kv(options.extra_vars)
 
     # run all playbooks specified on the command line
@@ -70,7 +65,6 @@ def main(args):
             playbook=playbook,
             module_path=options.module_path,
             host_list=options.inventory, 
-            override_hosts=override_hosts,
             forks=options.forks, 
             debug=options.debug, 
             remote_user=options.remote_user,