How to get an environment variable value into Dockerfile during "docker build"?

Question

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?

Answer 1

When using build-arg...

docker build --build-arg CODE_VERSION=1.2 Dockerfile

...consider that the variable is not available 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

Answer 2

Correct me if I wrong. The question was about env variables - not about args. The question was How to send ENV var to container - it means that container can reference to that variable. So I think the answer should be the following:

1. there is no need to use ARG cos it is used only during building the image
2. if you need to pass environment variable to container there is syntax that can be used to run the container: docker run --name [container-name] -e "[variable-name]=[new-value]" [image-name]

Answer 3

You can directly pass env variables when container start :

docker run -e [your_variable_name = your_variable_value] [image to instanciate]

Example :

docker run --rm -e TARGET=192.168.1.9 ubuntu env

The output is :

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
HOSTNAME=36399469e519
TARGET=192.168.1.9
HOME=/root

The target variable was added to your env variables of the current container !

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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 .

Answer 6

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.

Answer 7

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 -

Answer 8

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

Answer 9

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.