title: Is it possible to use variables in cloud-config
body: <p>When using <a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CloudInit" rel="noreferrer">cloud init's</a> #cloud-config to create configuration files, how would I go about using variables to populate values? </p>
  
  <p>In my specific case I'd like to autostart EC2 instances as preconfigured salt minions. <a href="https://github.com/number5/cloud-init/blob/master/doc/examples/cloud-config-salt-minion.txt" rel="noreferrer">Example of salt minion cloud config</a></p>
  
  <p>Say I'd like to get the specific EC2 instances id and set that as the salt minion's id. </p>
  
  <p>How would I go about it setting the value dynamically for each instance?</p>