set hosts via hosts variable

readme.md

all host call

ansible-playbook playbook_debug.yml --list-hosts

limit hosts with the hosts variable and use a regex with ~

see https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/inventory_guide/intro_patterns.html in this example only hosts are affected who match the regex: f\d.*-imap00\d . this is usefull if you use import_playbook to import the playbook playbook_debug.yml

ansible-playbook playbook_debug.yml -e hosts=":&~f\d.*-imap00\d$" --list-hosts    

the standard way also works

good to know that the playbooks also works the standard way

ansible-playbook playbook_debug.yml -l '~f3mb-imap' --list-hosts

parent_playbook.yml

---
- name: execute playbook_debug.yml
  import_playbook: playbook_debug.yml
  vars:
    hosts: ':&~f\d.*-imap00\d$'

playbook_debug.yml

---
- hosts: "all{{ hosts|default('') }}"
  vars:
    a: hallo Maksym
  tasks:
    - name: debug
      debug:
        msg: "{{ a }}"