devcontainer.json does not pick up parameters from the env file and does not pass them to docker-compose

[avraam-inside]

I need to pass the path to the project folder at one point from somewhere (from under the env file or devcontainer).

Unfortunately, now we have to duplicate it, because we could not link devcontainer with docker-compose at all.

Please fix/modify.

[chrmarti]

docker-compose will pick up a .env file in the same folder as the (first) docker-compose.yml. Does that help?

[avraam-inside]

@chrmarti Unfortunately, it doesn't help.

docker-compose.yml will pick it up. The point is how to pass parameters from .env file to devcontainer.json.

Or as from devcontainer.json pass variables to docker-compose.yml?

Now I have to duplicate variables both there and there.

The functionality presented in this documentation https://code.visualstudio.com/remote/advancedcontainers/environment-variables does not allow linking variables between devcontainer.json and docker-compose.yml

A concrete example: I need to change the workspaceFolder in devcontainer.json and at the same time register the same path in volumes in docker-compose. Now I do not know how to do this without duplicating this path in both files.

[MadsRC]

A workaround is using the initializeCommand setting in devcontainer.json to write to .env, which docker-compose will then pick up. Example: "initializeCommand": "echo \"${workspaceFolder}\" > .env"

The only reason I call it a workaround and not a solution is that it's no OS agnostic. You're passing a OS specific command, which might not work on Windows, MacOS or Linux.