Docker compose like env_file

[petkostas]

We are slowly trying to move to devspace from docker-compose in a high-paced environment. Although transitioning most of the services from docker-compose files to devspace is easy, I encounter a problem, that is the lack (or my blindness) of env_file like configuration of services.
To be more precise, our stack consists of several services using the same framework, which renders the usage of separate env files for local development a necessity, as most framework-related variables use the same naming and require the use of separate env files to work properly. Is there something similar in dev space? I see support for single .env files, but that means that we need to rename every single variable we use (and there are many...)

[LukasGentele]

To clarify: If you have a devspace.yaml with 2 deployments, you want to specify 1 or more files for each of these deployments to auto-add environment variables from these files to the containers within the respective deployment?

[petkostas]

Yes correct!

[petkostas]

To be more clear, taking the official Django example, this is what I would be looking for:

deployments:
- name: foo
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/foo
        env_file:
        - configs/env/foo.env
      service:
        ports:
        - port: 8000
- name: bar                                      
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/bar
        env_file:
        - configs/env/bar.env
      service:
        ports:
        - port: 8001

[rafaeljusto]

Hey @petkostas , did you find a solution to this problem? I'm looking for the same feature. 🙂

EDIT: Never mind, we found a good approach to solve this issue. I've posted it as a new discussion.

[rafaeljusto]

One approach we found useful was using expressions:

deployments:
- name: foo
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/foo
        env: $(cat common.env)
      service:
        ports:
        - port: 8000
- name: bar                                      
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/bar
        env: $(cat common.env)
      service:
        ports:
        - port: 8001

And common.env file would have the format:

- name: "variable1"
  value: "value1"
- name: "variable2"
  value: "value2"

[lizardruss]

Glad you found a solution! One other approach is to create config map from your .env file, and using envFrom to load them into your container:

Command to create / update the config map during a deploy pipeline

kubectl apply configmap common-env --from-env-file=common.env

Reference it from your deployment in devspace.yaml

deployments:
- name: foo
  helm:
    componentChart: true
    values:
      containers:
      - image: dscr.io/${DEVSPACE_USERNAME}/foo
        envFrom:
        - configMapRef:
            name: common-env
      service:
        ports:
        - port: 8000

In this case, the common.env would have the usual .env format:

variable1=value1
variable2=value2

Depending on how you deploy your application, this approach could be more similar to that environment. Both are valid approaches, just wanted to add another solution.

[rafaeljusto]

Oh, lovely approach. Thank you!! 🙂