Rails app can't access environment database variable

1

Hi guys, I’m trying to setup my app for the first time and I’m having some problems with the deploy.

For some reason, my app can’t access the environment variable that I set with the database URL:

I have set this way:

aptible config:add --app house-staging DATABASE_URL=postgresql…

When I run the command to list all environment variables it’s present:

aptible config --app house-staging
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://XXXXXXXXXXX

I forced an error listing all environment variables during the deploy and I wasn’t able to locate the DATABASE_URL variable …

The error:

remote: all variables:
remote: {“HOSTNAME”=>“914cf42a3e15”, “HOME”=>"/root", “LIBSSL_MIN”=>“1.0.1f-1ubuntu2”, “RUBY_VERSION”=>“2.4.1”, “RUBY_SHA1SUM”=>“47909a0f77ea900573f027d27746960ad6d07d15”, “PATH”=>"/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin", “LIBC_MIN”=>“2.21-0ubuntu6”, “PWD”=>"/app", “BUNDLER_ORIG_PATH”=>"/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin", “BUNDLE_BIN_PATH”=>"/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0/gems/bundler-1.14.6/exe/bundle", “BUNDLE_GEMFILE”=>"/app/Gemfile", “BUNDLER_VERSION”=>“1.14.6”, “RUBYOPT”=>"-rbundler/setup", “RUBYLIB”=>"/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0/gems/bundler-1.14.6/lib", “GEM_PATH”=>"/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0:/root/.gem/ruby/2.4.0", “GEM_HOME”=>"/usr/lib/ruby/gems/2.4.0"}

Am I doing something wrong ?

2

Hi there @augusto,

Environment variables are not available during the Docker build (this can be viewed both as a best practice or a limitation in Docker itself); is that where you’re trying to access them?

If so, we do provide a workaround, documented here: https://www.aptible.com/support/topics/enclave/how-to-access-environment-variables-inside-dockerfile/

Cheers,

3

Hi @thomas, yes, that was exactly it!

Thanks a lot!

4

You’re welcome! :slight_smile: