Shell environment variables in vagrant files are only passed on first up

Question

I'm running Vagrant 1.8.5, which supports environment variables in the Vagrantfile at provisioning time using a format like this

config.vm.provision :shell, path: "bootstrap.sh", env: {"MYSQL_DB_USERNAME"=>"django", "MYSQL_DB_PASSWORD"=>"supersecretpasswordwasreplaced"}

However, I would like these environment variables to also be available when I do up without provisioning, or when I SSH into the server to do jobs. The obvious ways I can find are

to have them built into the box (seems like overkill) or
repeat them in my config.ssh.forward_env so that they are available to both the provisioner and SSH.

Is there a better way?

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

8

I am not sure about the best ultimate way - I've seen this question popping from time to time and discussion.

repeat them in my config.ssh.forward_env so that they are available to both the provisioner and SSH.

well, it could sound like a good solution but there's some drawback, I've discussed in this question already

Personally when I need to set env variable, I would add them in the .profile file:

  config.vm.provision "shell", privileged: false, inline: <<-SHELL
    echo "export MYSQL_DB_USERNAME = django" > /home/vagrant/.profile
    echo "export MYSQL_DB_PASSWORD = supersecretpasswordwasreplaced" > /home/vagrant/.profile
  SHELL

They will be available when you login.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Oct 26 '16 at 20:12

Frederic Henri

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for whatever reason, I'm using Vagrant 1.8.5 too and no matter what, appending a string to a file does not work :( – Jeanderson Candido Dec 01 '16 at 14:10
@JeandersonBarrosCândido this is weird and I dont think it has to do with vagrant but might be bash related. if you ssh into the box and run the command, does it work ? – Frederic Henri Dec 01 '16 at 14:14
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yes... I just destroyed my vagrant box and created it again... apparently I forgot to rerun vagrant provision ;) – Jeanderson Candido Dec 01 '16 at 14:20
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This script fragment is clearly incorrect and the upvoters have not thought about it or tested it – Vorsprung Apr 04 '19 at 08:36

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '19 at 08:41

6

At first glance, this answer seems similar to the top voted answer. However, please look carefully at the redirection operator on the second echo

config.vm.provision "shell", env: {"DOCKERHUBID"=>ENV['DOCKERHUBID'], "DOCKERHUBPASS"=>ENV['DOCKERHUBPASS']}, inline: <<-SHELL
echo "export DOCKERHUBID=$DOCKERHUBID" > /home/vagrant/.profile
echo "export DOCKERHUBPASS=$DOCKERHUBPASS" >> /home/vagrant/.profile
SHELL

answered Apr 04 '19 at 08:41

Vorsprung

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Thank you! There are so many incorrect and confusing answers out there for how to accomplish this. Yours is neither. :) – TJ Zimmerman Sep 11 '20 at 17:19

Shell environment variables in vagrant files are only passed on first up

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