Best practices for working with environment variables in Docker Compose
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Handle sensitive information securely
Be cautious about including sensitive data in environment variables. Consider using Secrets for managing sensitive information.
Understand environment variable precedence
Be aware of how Docker Compose handles the
precedence of environment variables from different sources (.env
files, shell variables, Dockerfiles).
Use specific environment files
Consider how your application adapts to different environments. For example development, testing, production, and use different .env
files as needed.
Know interpolation
Understand how interpolation works within compose files for dynamic configurations.
Command line overrides
Be aware that you can override environment variables from the command line when starting containers. This is useful for testing or when you have temporary changes.