test inventory and commands showing a problem with variable precedence

hosts

#	     app1 var=app1		    app2  var=app2
#	    /    \			   /	 \
#   app1-dev 	  app1-prod 	   app2-dev 	  app2-prod		var=app{1,2}-{dev,prod} (set to respective groupname)
#      /	      \			/	     \
# app1-dev-node	app1-prod-node	app2-dev-node	app2-prod-node		${group}-node is the single member of $group
#
# each node ${group}-node should get as value for $var -> ${group} 
# being the value of its respective group name ${group}

# test command:
# ansible -o -m debug -a msg="{{var}}" all -c local -i hosts

# groups as per graph
[app1:children]
app1-dev
app1-prod

[app2:children]
app2-dev
app2-prod

[app1-dev]
app1-dev-node

[app1-prod]
app1-prod-node

[app2-dev]
app2-dev-node

[app2-prod]
app2-prod-node

#### VARS #####
## var is set to the respective group name

[app1:vars]
var=app1

[app2:vars]
var=app2

[app1-dev:vars]
var=app1-dev

[app2-dev:vars]
var=app2-dev

[app1-prod:vars]
var=app1-prod

[app2-prod:vars]
var=app2-prod

output

ansible -o -m debug -a msg={{var}} all -c local -i inventory/ini/hosts

app1-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app1-prod"}

app1-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app1-dev"}

app2-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app2-dev"}

app2-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app2-prod"}

ansible -o -m debug -a msg={{var}} all -c local -i inventory/ini

app2-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app2-dev"}

app1-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app1-prod"}

app1-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app1"}

app2-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app2"}

ansible -o -m debug -a msg={{var}} all -c local -i inventory

app2-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app2-dev"}

app1-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app1-prod"}

app1-dev-node | success >> {"msg": "app1"}

app2-prod-node | success >> {"msg": "app2"}

I'm also not seeing this with your inventory file:

---
# Test creation of new sysctl keys.
- hosts: all
  connection: local
  gather_facts: False
  tasks:
    - shell: echo {{ var }}

changed: [app1-prod-node] => {"changed": true, "cmd": "echo app1-prod ", "delta": "0:00:00.013328", "end": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.203140", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.189812", "stderr": "", "stdout": "app1-prod"}
changed: [app2-dev-node] => {"changed": true, "cmd": "echo app2-dev ", "delta": "0:00:00.007843", "end": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.195328", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.187485", "stderr": "", "stdout": "app2-dev"}
changed: [app1-dev-node] => {"changed": true, "cmd": "echo app1-dev ", "delta": "0:00:00.009514", "end": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.198233", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.188719", "stderr": "", "stdout": "app1-dev"}
changed: [app2-prod-node] => {"changed": true, "cmd": "echo app2-prod ", "delta": "0:00:00.017595", "end": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.209548", "rc": 0, "start": "2013-06-03 11:04:34.191953", "stderr": "", "stdout": "app2-prod"}

Ok, I see now, this is a bug that only occurs when the inventory is sourced from a directory. I see now.