Allow the group_vars and host_vars directories to be stored alongside the playbook as well as inventory.

lib/ansible/inventory/__init__.py

@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ class Inventory(object):
 
     __slots__ = [ 'host_list', 'groups', '_restriction', '_also_restriction', '_subset', 
                   'parser', '_vars_per_host', '_vars_per_group', '_hosts_cache', '_groups_list',
-                  '_vars_plugins']
+                  '_vars_plugins', '_playbook_basedir']
 
     def __init__(self, host_list=C.DEFAULT_HOST_LIST):
 
@@ -54,6 +54,9 @@ class Inventory(object):
         self._hosts_cache    = {}
         self._groups_list    = {} 
 
+        # to be set by calling set_playbook_basedir by ansible-playbook
+        self._playbook_basedir = None
+
         # the inventory object holds a list of groups
         self.groups = []
 
@@ -372,3 +375,16 @@ class Inventory(object):
         if not self.is_file():
             return None
         return os.path.dirname(self.host_list)
+
+    def playbook_basedir(self):
+        """ returns the directory of the current playbook """
+        return self._playbook_basedir
+
+    def set_playbook_basedir(self, dir):
+        """ 
+        sets the base directory of the playbook so inventory plugins can use it to find
+        variable files and other things. 
+        """
+        self._playbook_basedir = dir
+
+