Is it possible to use environment variables in bookmarks.yaml?

[SwallowYourDreams]

Description

I'd like to know if it is possible to

• reference an external .env_file in my docker-compose.yaml (well, that is possible, but hear me out)
• inside that .env file, create an environment variable (e.g. MY_URL=https://some-url.com)
• then reference that variable inside bookmarks.yaml, like so:

- My bookmark
  - icon: my-bookmark
    href: ${MY_URL}

I've tried just doing it as outlined above, but it will just result in the URL pointing to my homepage URL and (literally) $MY_URL tacked to the end. So this is not the right way to do it. Does anyone have either a definitive "no, this isn't possible", or alternatively suggestions on how I might get it to run?

My use case is I'm running Redlib (a free Reddit frontend), which stores subreddit subscriptions as GET parameters inside the URL. I want to create an easy way to update my subscriptions by just overwriting the entire .env_file, instead of going through the whole bookmarks.yaml and selectively replacing the line in question.

homepage version

latest

Installation method

Docker

Configuration

No response

Container Logs

No response

Browser Logs

No response

Troubleshooting

---

[buffaloexpatbill]

Have you taken a look at #4886 ?

[SwallowYourDreams]

Hey, thanks for sticking around!

Did you include the pointer to the env file in the docker-compose.yaml and recreate the container?

I think I did it all, but I must be missing something. So let's take this slowly:

Here's what I do in my main docker-compose.yml:

    env_file:
      - .env

Here's the contents of said .env file:

MY_VAR: "test"

And here's the relevant parts of my ./config/bookmarks.yml:

  - My bookmark:
    - icon: bookmark
      description: Something something bookmark
      href: {{MY_VAR}}

Still, I'm getting https://my-domain.com/[object Object]. I've tried all possible and impossible combinations of referencing that environment variable: Single and double curly brackets, with and without quotes, with dollar sign and without. Nothing.

[buffaloexpatbill]

I had an opportunity to do a little testing. If the variable name in use was literally "{{MY_VAR}}" or anything that doesn't start with "{{HOMEPAGE_VAR_" that may be the issue.
On https://gethomepage.dev/installation/docker
The Using Environment Secrets section says:

You can also include environment variables in your config files to protect sensitive information. Note:

Environment variables must start with HOMEPAGE_VAR_ or HOMEPAGE_FILE_
The value of env var HOMEPAGE_VAR_XXX will replace {{HOMEPAGE_VAR_XXX}} in any config
The value of env var HOMEPAGE_FILE_XXX must be a file path, the contents of which will be used to replace {{HOMEPAGE_FILE_XXX}} in any config

I had not previously used variables in the bookmarks file, but in the instructions it does say "in any config" and I was able to use a variable in place of the URL to Docker Hub that I had in my bookmarks.

In the .env I had

HOMEPAGE_VAR_DOCKERHUB="https://hub.docker.com/"

and in the bookmarks.yaml

- Docker Hub:
    - abbr: DH
      href: {{HOMEPAGE_VAR_DOCKERHUB}}
      icon: docker.svg

Other notes:
You may need single quotes around the value in your .env file if there are special characters in the value (any values that linux would try to expand/interpret rather than use as a literal).
I had not been using the - following the env_file: entry, since it is not a list, but it does work with that construct or env_file: .env
In my environment (homelab with just me using most things), I didn't consider the URLs themselves to be secret, but the variable substitution does work, so they can be from anyone that isn't loading the generated homepage or that doesn't have access to the .env file anyway.

[u0398]

I am having the same problem not getting this work, but I did notice that your .env file seemed incorrect:

MY_VAR: "test"

It should be formatted like this:

MY_VAR=test

Once you have recreated the container (not just restarted it) run this to see if your environment variable is loaded in the container:

docker compose exec <container_name> printenv

[buffaloexpatbill]

I wouldn't expect MY_VAR to be pulled as an environment variable since last I knew the website explicitly says, "Environment variables must start with HOMEPAGE_VAR_ or HOMEPAGE_FILE_
The value of env var HOMEPAGE_VAR_XXX will replace {{HOMEPAGE_VAR_XXX}} in any config
The value of env var HOMEPAGE_FILE_XXX must be a file path, the contents of which will be used to replace {{HOMEPAGE_FILE_XXX}} in any config"

[u0398]

@buffaloexpatbill

Thank you for pointing that out. I missed the Using Environment Secrets section.

It is a little frustrating that environment variables need to be prefixed to work. I understand the limited scope they seem to have been intended for, and that values may need to be parsed for security, but I was hoping to use all the settings I already had in an .env file to make things like URLs and port numbers a bit more dynamic. I guess I can do a little text manipulation to prefix all those variables before sending them off to homepage.

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