I have a docker image that needs some credentials passed from the host-environment. How do I pass Linux environmental variables into dockerfile. No flags attachment only dockerfile.
When I build the Docker Image it fetches packages from a local repo that needs authentication. This is all automated and the credentials depend on the host machine that is running.
I have tried to google it and only found how to pass hard-coded varibles. But I need e.g.
export VAR=[PASSWORD]
to be passed into the dockerfile.
ENV PASSWORD = $VAR
You should use ARG with the ENV in your Dockerfile:
ARG name
ENV env_name $name
When you build your image, pass the arg from your local environment
docker build -t my_image --build-arg name=$MY_LOCAL_ENV_VAR .
I would like to set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH variable based on my working directory using my Dockerfile. I have tried using ENV $PWD/some/subpath but when I inspect the container later using docker exec mycontainer bash -c "env" it shows up as /some/subpath rather than /my/working/dir/some/subpath however I also see that PWD is defined as /my/working/dir/ as I would expect it to be. so why is using $PWD in my Dockerfile not substituting the way I am expecting it to?
From this answer, $PWD is a special environment variable set when running a shell. Unlike RUN commands, ENV commands do not create a shell so PWD is never set.
To get the value of PWD at build time, you could instead use a build-arg and pass in $PWD in the build command.
You'd do this in your Dockerfile like this:
# dockerfile
ARG working_directory
ENV $working_directory/some/subpath
and build like this:
docker build --build-arg "working_directory=$PWD" .
I'm building a container for a ruby app. My app's configuration is contained within environment variables (loaded inside the app with dotenv).
One of those configuration variables is the public ip of the app, which is used internally to make links.
I need to add a dnsmasq entry pointing this ip to 127.0.0.1 inside the container, so it can fetch the app's links as if it were not containerized.
I'm therefore trying to set an ENV in my Dockerfile which would pass an environment variable to the container.
I tried a few things.
ENV REQUEST_DOMAIN $REQUEST_DOMAIN
ENV REQUEST_DOMAIN `REQUEST_DOMAIN`
Everything passes the "REQUEST_DOMAIN" string instead of the value of the environment variable though.
Is there a way to pass environment variables values from the host machine to the container?
You should use the ARG directive in your Dockerfile which is meant for this purpose.
The ARG instruction defines a variable that users can pass at build-time to the builder with the docker build command using the --build-arg <varname>=<value> flag.
So your Dockerfile will have this line:
ARG request_domain
or if you'd prefer a default value:
ARG request_domain=127.0.0.1
Now you can reference this variable inside your Dockerfile:
ENV request_domain=$request_domain
then you will build your container like so:
$ docker build --build-arg request_domain=mydomain Dockerfile
Note 1: Your image will not build if you have referenced an ARG in your Dockerfile but excluded it in --build-arg.
Note 2: If a user specifies a build argument that was not defined in the Dockerfile, the build outputs a warning:
[Warning] One or more build-args [foo] were not consumed.
So you can do:
cat Dockerfile | envsubst | docker build -t my-target -
Then have a Dockerfile with something like:
ENV MY_ENV_VAR $MY_ENV_VAR
I guess there might be a problem with some special characters, but this works for most cases at least.
This is for those looking to pass env variable from docker-compose using .env file to dockerfile during build and then pass those args as env variable to container.
Typical docker-compose file
services:
web:
build:
context: ./api
dockerfile: Dockerfile
args:
- SECRET_KEY=$SECRET_KEY
- DATABASE_URL=$DATABASE_URL
- AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
Pass the env variable present in .env file to args in build command.
Typical .env file
SECRET_KEY=blahblah
DATABASE_URL=dburl
Now when you run docker-compose up -d command, docker-compose file takes values from .env file then pass it to docker-compose file. Now Dockerfile of web containes all those varibales through args during build. Now typical dockerfile of web,
FROM python:3.6-alpine
ARG SECRET_KEY
ARG DATABASE_URL
ARG AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
ARG AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
ARG AWS_BUCKET
ARG AWS_REGION
ARG CLOUDFRONT_DOMAIN
ENV CELERY_BROKER_URL redis://redis:6379/0
ENV CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND redis://redis:6379/0
ENV C_FORCE_ROOT true
ENV SECRET_KEY ${SECRET_KEY?secretkeynotset}
ENV DATABASE_URL ${DATABASE_URL?envdberror}
Now we recieved those secret_key and db url as arg in dokcerfile. Now let's use those in ENV as ENV SECRET_KEY ${SECRET_KEY?secretkeynotset}. Now even docker container has those variables in it's environment.
Remember not to use ARG $SECRET_KEY(which I did). It should be ARG SECRET_KEY
An alternative using envsubst without losing the ability to use commands like COPY or ADD, and without using intermediate files would be to use Bash's Process Substitution:
docker build -f <(envsubst < Dockerfile) -t my-target .
Load environment variables from a file you create at runtime.
export MYVAR="my_var_outside"
cat > build/env.sh <<EOF
MYVAR=${MYVAR}
EOF
... then in the Dockerfile
ADD build /build
RUN /build/test.sh
where test.sh loads MYVAR from env.sh
#!/bin/bash
. /build/env.sh
echo $MYVAR > /tmp/testfile
If you just want to find and replace all environment variables ($ExampleEnvVar) in a Dockerfile then build it this would work:
envsubst < /path/to/Dockerfile | docker build -t myDockerImage . -f -
When using build-arg...
docker build --build-arg CODE_VERSION=1.2 Dockerfile
...consider that the variable is not availabe after FROM:
ARG CODE_VERSION=latest
FROM base:${CODE_VERSION}
An ARG declared before a FROM is outside of a build stage, so it can’t be used in any instruction after a FROM.
Generally ARGs should be placed after FROM if not required during FROM:
FROM base:xy
ARG ABC=123
To use the default value of an ARG declared before the first FROM use an ARG instruction without a value inside of a build stage:
ARG VERSION=latest
FROM busybox:$VERSION
ARG VERSION
RUN echo $VERSION > image_version
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#understand-how-arg-and-from-interact
add -e key for passing environment variables to container.
example:
$ MYSQLHOSTIP=$(sudo docker inspect -format="{{ .NetworkSettings.IPAddress }}" $MYSQL_CONRAINER_ID)
$ sudo docker run -e DBIP=$MYSQLHOSTIP -i -t myimage /bin/bash
root#87f235949a13:/# echo $DBIP
172.17.0.2
so the objective is to have a different image for prod and testing so there are certain variables change accordingly so I need to set env variables during the build.
# Dockerfile
ENV Somename: $value
...
docker build --build-arg Somename=value -t test .
docker run -d -p port:port test
this work flow is not taking the env variables
First you need to consume the build-arg inside you dockerfile using the ARG command.
FROM alpine
# consume the build arg
ARG somename
# persist the env variable in the built image
ENV somename=$somename
# somename will appear as an env variable
RUN echo $somename
RUN env
And running the build command docker build --build-arg somename=hello . will show you an env variable somename=hello
your syntax is not correct, do not put
:
it is either
ENV somename somevalue
or
ENV somename=somevalue
Check the doc
https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/builder/#env
I have built an image from this Dockerfile:
FROM jenkins
RUN export http_proxy=http://user:pass#x.x.x.x:port
#more things
But when I enter in the container (via exec /bin/bash), http_proxy is not exported.
What can I do?
Thanks
Unless you have a specific reason for using export, Docker has built-in support for using environment variables in a Dockerfile:
ENV http_proxy='http://user:pass#x.x.x.x:port'