Env file watcher that watches and decrypts env files on the fly, using Dotenvx for decryption, and stores them in a file-system accessible path for easy loading into a Docker env_file directive, so that your Docker containers can be fed live env var file changes.
bash, dotenvx, inotify-tools, jq.
# Install dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt install inotify-tools jq curl
curl -L -fsS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dotenvx/dotenvx.sh/main/installer.sh | sh
# Start the watcher from project root containing your .env files
./watch.sh --help
This env file watcher was primarily created to assist with the integration of Dotenvx into projects that are heavily Docker based.
After trying to integrate Dotenvx with Docker the "traditional" way, I decided that this was a much nicer solution. You can read more about this process in an article I wrote here: https://dev.to/nullbio/dotenvx-with-docker-the-better-way-to-do-environment-variable-management-5c0n.
Usage: ./watch.sh [options] [file...]
Options:
-h, --help Show this help message and exit.
Description:
This script monitors one or more environment files for changes.
When a change is detected, it will decrypt the monitored file using dotenvx,
and store the decrypted file in a ramfs memory-based filesystem mount.
If no file is specified, it defaults to watching '.env.dev'.
Default path is /mnt/ramfs/dotenvx/*.envfilename*.decrypted
The subdirectory (by default, named "dotenvx") can be changed by specifying the
environment variable RAMFS_SUBDIR.
Examples:
1. Watch the default environment file:
./watch.sh
2. Watch a specific environment file:
./watch.sh .env.dev
3. Watch multiple environment files:
./watch.sh ~/.env.dev /path/to/.env.prod
4. Change the subdirectory where the decrypted files are stored:
RAMFS_SUBDIR=projectname && ./watch.sh# compose.yml
services:
postgres:
image: postgres:latest
env_file:
- /mnt/ramfs/dotenvx/.env.dev.decrypted
environment:
# $POSTGRES_PASSWORD is decrypted inside .env.dev.decrypted
POSTGRES_PASSWORD: $POSTGRES_PASSWORDRegular usage example:
$: ./watch.sh
Env file watcher started: .env.dev -> /mnt/ramfs/dotenvx/.env.dev.decrypted
Env file watchers running and waiting for file changes. Ctrl+C to quit...
Detected modification in .env.dev, decrypting and updating /mnt/ramfs/dotenvx/.env.dev.decrypted ...
^C
Deleting decrypted env files from memory: /mnt/ramfs/dotenvxSpecify custom subdirectory:
$: RAMFS_SUBDIR=projectname && ./watch.sh
Env file watcher started: .env.dev -> /mnt/ramfs/projectname/.env.dev.decrypted