How can I use environment variables in Nginx.conf

From the official Nginx docker file:

Using environment variables in nginx configuration:

Out-of-the-box, Nginx doesn't support using environment variables inside most configuration blocks.

But envsubst may be used as a workaround if you need to generate your nginx configuration dynamically before nginx starts.

Here is an example using docker-compose.yml:

image: nginx
volumes:
 - ./mysite.template:/etc/nginx/conf.d/mysite.template
ports:
 - "8080:80"
environment:
 - NGINX_HOST=foobar.com
 - NGINX_PORT=80
command: /bin/bash -c "envsubst < /etc/nginx/conf.d/mysite.template > /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf && nginx -g 'daemon off;'" 

The mysite.template file may then contain variable references like this :

listen ${NGINX_PORT};

Update:

But you know this caused to its Nginx variables like this:

proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Host $host;

damaged to:

proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Host ;

So, to prevent that, i use this trick:

I have a script to run Nginx, that used on the docker-compose file as command option for Nginx server, i named it run_nginx.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
export DOLLAR='$'
envsubst < nginx.conf.template > /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
nginx -g "daemon off;"

And because of defined new DOLLAR variable on run_nginx.sh script, now content of my nginx.conf.template file for Nginx itself variable is like this:

proxy_set_header        X-Forwarded-Host ${DOLLAR}host;

And for my defined variable is like this:

server_name  ${WEB_DOMAIN} www.${WEB_DOMAIN};

Also here, there is my real use case for that.

The official nginx image recommends using envsubst, but as pointed out by others it will replace also $host and other variables, which is not desirable. But fortunately envsubst can take as a parameter the names of variables to replace.

To avoid a very complex command parameter to the container (as in the linked example), you can write a Docker entrypoint script which will fill in the environment variables before executing the command. The entrypoint script is also a good place for validating the parameters and setting default values.

Here is an example of an nginx container which takes in API_HOST and API_PORT parameters as environment variables.

nginx-default.conf.template

resolver  127.0.0.11 valid=10s;  # recover from the backend's IP changing

server {
  listen  80;

  location / {
    root  /usr/share/nginx/html;
  }

  location /api {
    proxy_pass  http://${API_HOST}:${API_PORT};
    proxy_set_header  Host $http_host;
  }
}

docker-entrypoint.sh

#!/usr/bin/env sh
set -eu

envsubst '${API_HOST} ${API_PORT}' < /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf.template > /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf

exec "$@"

Dockerfile

FROM nginx:1.15-alpine

COPY nginx-default.conf.template /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf.template

COPY docker-entrypoint.sh /
ENTRYPOINT ["/docker-entrypoint.sh"]
CMD ["nginx", "-g", "daemon off;"]

envsubstr is handled automatically by the nginx image now.

From the docs:

Out-of-the-box, nginx doesn't support environment variables inside most configuration blocks. But this image has a function, which will extract environment variables before nginx starts.

By default, this function reads template files in /etc/nginx/templates/*.template and outputs the result of executing envsubst to /etc/nginx/conf.d.

Doing this with Lua is substantially easier than it sounds:

server {
    set_by_lua $server_name 'return os.getenv("NGINX_SERVERNAME")';
}

I found that here:

https://docs.apitools.com/blog/2014/07/02/using-environment-variables-in-nginx-conf.html

Edit:

Apparently this requires installing the lua module: https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module

Edit 2:

Note that with this approach you have to define env variable in Nginx:

env ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_NAME

You have to do this in toplevel context in nginx.conf or it won't work! Not in server block or in config of some site in /etc/nginx/sites-available, because it is included by nginx.conf in http context (which is not top-level context).

Also note that with this approach if you try to make a redirect e.g.:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name $server_name;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

it won't work as well:

2016/08/30 14:49:35 [emerg] 1#0: the duplicate "server_name" variable in /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default:8

And if you give a separate variable name to it:

set_by_lua $server_name_from_env 'return os.getenv("NGINX_SERVERNAME")';

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name $server_name_from_env;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

nginx won't interpret it and will redirect you to https://%24server_name_from_env/.

I wrote something that may or may not be helpful: https://github.com/yawn/envplate

It inline edits configuration files with ${key} references to environment variables, optionally creating backups / logging what it does. It's written in Go and the resulting static binary can be simply downloaded from the release tab for Linux and MacOS.

It can also exec() processes, substitute defaults, logs and has sensible failure semantics.

What I did was to use the erb!

cat nginx.conf  | grep -i error_log

error_log <%= ENV["APP_ROOT"] %>/nginx/logs/error.log;

--After using erb

export APP_ROOT=/tmp

erb nginx.conf  | grep -i error_log

error_log /tmp/nginx/logs/error.log;

This is used in the Cloudfoundry staticfile-buildpack

Sample nginx configuration: https://github.com/cloudfoundry/staticfile-buildpack/blob/master/conf/nginx.conf

In your case

head /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
env APP_WEB_1_PORT_5000_TCP_ADDR;
upstream gunicorn {
    server $APP_HOST_NAME:$APP_HOST_PORT;
}

become

head /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
env <%= ENV["APP_WEB_1_PORT_5000_TCP_ADDR"] %>
upstream gunicorn {
    server <%= ENV["APP_HOST_NAME"] %>:<%= ENV["APP_HOST_PORT"] %>
}

#After applying erb

export APP_WEB_1_PORT_5000_TCP_ADDR=12.12.12.12
export APP_HOST_NAME=test
export APP_HOST_PORT=7089 

erb /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

head /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
user www-data;
worker_processes 4;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
env 12.12.12.12
upstream gunicorn {
    server test: 7089
}

Referring to the answer on using erb, it can be done as below.

Write the NGINX config file as an erb file containing the environment variable, and evaluate it using the erb command to a normal config file.

erb nginx.conf.erb > nginx.conf

Inside the server block of the nginx.conf.erb file there could be

listen <%= ENV["PORT"] %>;

I accomplish this using a shell script.

Here is the nginx template:

server {

    listen 80;
    server_name ___MY_DOMAIN_NAME___;
    charset utf-8;

    location /proxy {
        proxy_pass http://___PROXY_IP___:___PROXY_PORT___;
        proxy_set_header Host            $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto https;
    }

    location / {
        return         200;
    }

}

And the script to replace the environment variables is here:

echo sleep 3
sleep 3

echo build starting nginx config


echo replacing ___MY_DOMAIN_NAME___/$MY_DOMAIN_NAME
echo replacing ___PROXY_IP___/$LETSENCRYPT_IP
echo replacing ___PROXY_PORT___/$PROXY_PORT

sed -i "s/___MY_DOMAIN_NAME___/$MY_DOMAIN_NAME/g" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
sed -i "s/___PROXY_IP___/$PROXY_IP/g" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
sed -i "s/___PROXY_PORT___/$PROXY_PORT/g" /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

cat /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

if [ -z "$MY_DOMAIN_NAME" ]; then
    echo "Need to set MY_DOMAIN_NAME"
    exit 1
fi  
if [ -z "$LETSENCRYPT_IP" ]; then
    echo "Need to set LETSENCRYPT_IP"
    exit 1
fi  
if [ -z "$LETSENCRYPT_PORT" ]; then
    echo "Need to set LETSENCRYPT_PORT"
    exit 1
fi
if [ -z "$LETSENCRYPT_HTTPS_IP" ]; then
    echo "Need to set LETSENCRYPT_HTTPS_IP"
    exit 1
fi 
if [ -z "$LETSENCRYPT_HTTPS_PORT" ]; then
    echo "Need to set LETSENCRYPT_HTTPS_PORT"
    exit 1
fi

nginx -g 'daemon off;'

There are many ways. Some have been outlined in some answers.

If you use the ngx_http_js_module, there is also a way to do that with JS:

## /etc/nginx/fetch_env.js
function fetch_upstream_host(r) {
  return process.env.UPSTREAM_HOST;
}

function fetch_upstream_port(r) {
  return process.env.UPSTREAM_PORT;
}

and

## /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
load_module modules/ngx_http_js_module.so;

env UPSTREAM_HOST;
env UPSTREAM_PORT;

http {
  js_include fetch_env.js;
  js_set $upstream_host fetch_upstream_host;
  js_set $upstream_port fetch_upstream_port;

  server {
    ...

    location / {
      ...

      proxy_pass http://$upstream_host:$upstream_port;
    }
  }

Please make sure you use njs module 0.33 or newer

Here's an example of using the sed approach, not necessarily better but it may be useful to some. First, add a custom keyword to be replaced within the conf file. Second, create a dockerfile that declares an ENV variable and then a CMD that uses sed to edit the config before running nginx explicitly.

So suppose your default.conf contains this with the keyword docker_host:

location /api { proxy_pass http://docker_host:9000/api; }

And write your Dockerfile similar to:

ENV docker_host localhost
ADD default.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
CMD sed -i.bak s/docker_host/$docker_host/g /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf &&   nginx -g "daemon off;"

Then build the image and run the container using

docker run -d -p 80:80 -e "docker_host=${env:COMPUTERNAME}" imagename