dockerdocker-composeenvironment-variablesdirenv

docker-compose .env vs direnv .envrc

We've been using direnv for quite some time now to automatically load environment variables in a specific folder. And since version 3, docker-compose seems to support .env files.

The .envrc files used by direnv use export:

export NODE_ENV=development

Using the same file with docker-compose doesn't seem to work, only without export I get the value for the variable.

NODE_ENV=development

Any ideas on how to unify this into a single .env or .envrc file or an alternative to direnv?

Solution

  • Here is an alternative solution based on the comment chain for this answer

    direnv ships with a stdlib that can be used to support classical 'dotenv' settings

    # myproject/.envrc - name of current file

# Usage: 
# dotenv <optionalPathToDotEnvFile> or defaults to .env
dotenv

    # myproject/.env
FOO=BAR

    this is especially helpful when using container systems like docker that support the dotenv style