@@ -718,13 +718,13 @@ class Inventory(object):

             self._vars_per_host = {}

             self._vars_per_group = {}

-    def get_host_vars(self, host, new_pb_basedir=False):

+    def get_host_vars(self, host, new_pb_basedir=False, return_results=False):

         """ Read host_vars/ files """

-        return self._get_hostgroup_vars(host=host, group=None, new_pb_basedir=new_pb_basedir)

+        return self._get_hostgroup_vars(host=host, group=None, new_pb_basedir=new_pb_basedir, return_results=return_results)

-    def get_group_vars(self, group, new_pb_basedir=False):

+    def get_group_vars(self, group, new_pb_basedir=False, return_results=False):

         """ Read group_vars/ files """

-        return self._get_hostgroup_vars(host=None, group=group, new_pb_basedir=new_pb_basedir)

+        return self._get_hostgroup_vars(host=None, group=group, new_pb_basedir=new_pb_basedir, return_results=return_results)

     def _find_group_vars_files(self, basedir):

         """ Find group_vars/ files """

@@ -746,7 +746,7 @@ class Inventory(object):

             found_vars = set(os.listdir(unicode(path)))

         return found_vars

-    def _get_hostgroup_vars(self, host=None, group=None, new_pb_basedir=False):

+    def _get_hostgroup_vars(self, host=None, group=None, new_pb_basedir=False, return_results=False):

         """

         Loads variables from group_vars/<groupname> and host_vars/<hostname> in directories parallel

         to the inventory base directory or in the same directory as the playbook.  Variables in the playbook

@@ -785,11 +785,15 @@ class Inventory(object):

             if host is None and any(map(lambda ext: group.name + ext in self._group_vars_files, C.YAML_FILENAME_EXTENSIONS)):

                 # load vars in dir/group_vars/name_of_group

                 base_path = to_unicode(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(to_bytes(basedir), b"group_vars/" + to_bytes(group.name))), errors='strict')

-                self._variable_manager.add_group_vars_file(base_path, self._loader)

+                host_results = self._variable_manager.add_group_vars_file(base_path, self._loader)

+                if return_results:

+                    results = combine_vars(results, host_results)

             elif group is None and any(map(lambda ext: host.name + ext in self._host_vars_files, C.YAML_FILENAME_EXTENSIONS)):

                 # same for hostvars in dir/host_vars/name_of_host

                 base_path = to_unicode(os.path.abspath(os.path.join(to_bytes(basedir), b"host_vars/" + to_bytes(host.name))), errors='strict')

-                self._variable_manager.add_host_vars_file(base_path, self._loader)

+                group_results = self._variable_manager.add_host_vars_file(base_path, self._loader)

+                if return_results:

+                    results = combine_vars(results, group_results)

         # all done, results is a dictionary of variables for this particular host.

         return results