jinja env lookup within container.yml does not find environment variables

[shalomb]

ISSUE TYPE

• Bug Report

container.yml

---

version: "2"

settings:
  conductor:
    base: debian:latest

services:
  web:
    from: busybox:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      - 'VARFOO={{ lookup("env", "VARFOO") }}'

    command: ['/bin/sh', '-lc', 'while :; do sleep 10; { date; env; } >> /tmp/container.log; done']

registries: {}

OS / ENVIRONMENT

Ansible Container, version 0.9.2rc0
Linux, iris, 4.9.0-3-amd64, #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u3 (2017-08-06), x86_64
2.7.13 (default, Jan 19 2017, 14:48:08)
[GCC 6.3.0 20170118] /usr/bin/python
{                                                     
  "ContainersPaused": 0,    
  "Labels": null,
  "CgroupDriver": "cgroupfs",
  "ContainersRunning": 1,     
  "ContainerdCommit": {                   
    "Expected": "9048e5e50717ea4497b757314bad98ea3763c145",
    "ID": "9048e5e50717ea4497b757314bad98ea3763c145"
  },
  "InitBinary": "docker-init",
  "NGoroutines": 29,
  "Swarm": {
    "ControlAvailable": false,
    "NodeID": "",
    "Error": "",
    "RemoteManagers": null,
    "LocalNodeState": "inactive",
    "NodeAddr": ""
  },
  "LoggingDriver": "json-file",
  "OSType": "linux",
  "HttpProxy": "",
  "Runtimes": {
    "runc": {
      "path": "docker-runc"
    }
  },
  "DriverStatus": [
    [
      "Pool Name",
      "docker-254:3-33606240-pool"

SUMMARY

Our on-premise GitLab CI jobs set environment variables that I would like to use within container.yml and https://docs.ansible.com/ansible-container/container_yml/template.html#passing-environment-variables notes that

In the case of the build command, for example, template rendering happens before any containers are started, and it occurs outside of the Ansible Build Container.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

export VARFOO='42'
ansible-container --devel build
ansible-container --devel run --production

EXPECTED RESULTS

I would have expected VARFOO to be looked up by lookup("env", "VARFOO") and for the environment variable to be set in the container like so.

docker exec -it simplebusybox_web_1 grep VARFOO /tmp/container.log | tail -n 1
VARFOO=42

ACTUAL RESULTS

VARFOO happens to be empty in this case

docker exec -it simplebusybox_web_1 grep VARFOO /tmp/container.log | tail -n 1
VARFOO=

[chouseknecht]

@shalomb

Use of Ansible filters, like lookup, in container.yml is not supported. This is because we don't expect, nor require, Ansible to be installed as a prerequisite to Ansible Container.

[shalomb]

@chouseknecht - I see. I'm struggling to find a clean way to pass envvars in .. right now, I mangle a env.yml and then do this

ansible-container --vars-files env.yml run --production

Is there a better way to have container.yml take in env-vars?

[chouseknecht]

Within volumes we allow for the existence of ${some_var}. See config.py line 146. The intention of course was to allow for ${pwd}, but it works for any env var.

As a simple fix, I guess, we could apply the same to environment.

[shalomb]

@chouseknecht - That would be very practical indeed!! It'd be a big time and complexity saver for us!

I had a go at seeing if I could try and make this change myself.

diff --git a/container/config.py b/container/config.py
index 8a6384e..562bf17 100644
--- a/container/config.py
+++ b/container/config.py
@@ -138,6 +138,12 @@ class BaseAnsibleContainerConfig(Mapping):
                 dev_overrides = service_config.pop('dev_overrides', {})
                 if env == 'dev':
                     service_config.update(dev_overrides)
+            if 'environment' in service_config:
+                # Expand environment variables
+                updated_envvars = []
+                for var in service_config['environment']:
+                    updated_envvars.append(path.expandvars(var))
+                service_config['environment'] = updated_envvars
             if 'volumes' in service_config:
                 # Expand ~, ${HOME}, ${PWD}, etc. found in the volume src path
                 updated_volumes = []

But this doesn't stick and my ability with python is limited. I've given up (for now).

[bmcgair]

Is this solved? I'm having a similar issue, trying to use --with-variables on the ansible-container build command with no luck at all. Only documentation seems to be:

--with-variables WITH_VARIABLES [WITH_VARIABLES ...]

I'm trying to use --with-variables like --extra-vars in ansible-playbook but I'm not sure if I have the syntax correct based on whatever this example is supposed to mean.

Anybody have a working example of --with-variables? I just need to pass an os ENV into the ansible-container build. Seems like it shouldn't be this hard.

[l4r1k4]

    environment:  # List or mapping of environment variables
      - DISTRO=bionic
      - TYPE=lamp

This is how I am using ENV vars, hope that helps.

[l4r1k4]

the form FOO='{{ bar }}' works too