What are the differences between the vars and defaults folders in the Ansible structure, and what are their purposes?

In Ansible, the vars and defaults folders are used to store variables, but with different priorities and purposes:

• defaults — contains variables with the lowest priority. Usually, default values are placed here, which can be overridden elsewhere (for example, in vars, in inventory, or at runtime).

• vars — contains variables with a higher priority than defaults. Variables from vars have a higher priority than those from defaults and are typically used for mandatory or specific settings.

Example: If in a role, defaults/main.yml specifies:

app_port: 8080

And in vars/main.yml:

app_port: 9090

Then the value 9090 will be used.

Thus, defaults are basic values, and vars are more specific, capable of overriding defaults.