Define environment variables

Docker lets you store data such as configuration settings, encryption keys, and external resource addresses in environment variables. Docker Cloud makes it easy to define, share, and update the environment variables for your services.

At runtime, environment variables are exposed to the application inside the container.

Look inside your deployed app

Let’s look inside the app you just deployed.

Python quickstart

Open the file in quickstart-python/app.py, and look at the return statement in the method hello(). The code uses os.getenv(‘NAME’, “world”) to get the environment variable NAME.

return html.format(name=os.getenv('NAME', "world"), hostname=socket.gethostname(), visits=visits)

Go quickstart

Open the file in quickstart-go/main.go, and look at the fmt.Fprintf call in the indexHandler method. The code uses os.Getenv(“NAME”) to get the environment variable NAME.

fmt.Fprintf(w, "<h1>hello, %s</h1>\n<b>Hostname: </b>%s<br><b>MongoDB Status: </b>%s", os.Getenv("NAME"), hostname, mongostatus)

Edit an environment variable

If you modify the environment variable, the message the app shows when you curl or visit the service webpage changes accordingly. Let’s try it!

Run the following command to change the NAME variable, and then redeploy the web service.

$ docker-cloud service set --env NAME="Friendly Users" --redeploy web

Check endpoint status

Execute docker-cloud container ps again to see the container’s new endpoint. You should now see two web-1 containers, one with a status of terminated (that’s the original container) and another one either starting or already running.

$ docker-cloud container ps
NAME                         UUID      STATUS        IMAGE                                          RUN COMMAND      EXIT CODE  DEPLOYED        PORTS
web-1                        a2ff2247  ✘ Terminated  my-username/quickstart-python:latest           python app.py               40 minutes ago  web-1.my-username.cont.dockerapp.io:49165->80/tcp
web-1                        ae20d960  ▶ Running     my-username/quickstart-python:latest           python app.py               20 seconds ago  web-1.my-username.cont.dockerapp.io:49166->80/tcp

Now curl the new endpoint to see the updated greeting.

Note: If docker-cloud container ps doesn’t show an endpoint for the container yet, wait until the container status changes to running.

$ curl web-1.$DOCKER_ID_USER.cont.dockerapp.io:49162
Hello Friendly Users!</br>Hostname: e360d05cdb81</br>Counter: Redis Cache not found, counter disabled.%

Your service now returns Hello Friendly Users!. Great! You’ve modified your service using environment variables!

Environment Variables and the Dockerfile

Environment variables can also be set in the Dockerfile, and modified at runtime (like you just did).

Wondering where the default value for the NAME environment variable is set? Look in the quickstart’s Dockerfile.

# Environment Variables
ENV NAME World

What’s Next?

Next, we’ll try Scaling the service.