website/content/en/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/define-interdependent-envir...

79 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown

---
title: Define Dependent Environment Variables
content_type: task
weight: 20
---
<!-- overview -->
This page shows how to define dependent environment variables for a container
in a Kubernetes Pod.
## {{% heading "prerequisites" %}}
{{< include "task-tutorial-prereqs.md" >}}
<!-- steps -->
## Define an environment dependent variable for a container
When you create a Pod, you can set dependent environment variables for the containers that run in the Pod. To set dependent environment variables, you can use $(VAR_NAME) in the `value` of `env` in the configuration file.
In this exercise, you create a Pod that runs one container. The configuration
file for the Pod defines an dependent environment variable with common usage defined. Here is the configuration manifest for the
Pod:
{{< codenew file="pods/inject/dependent-envars.yaml" >}}
1. Create a Pod based on that manifest:
```shell
kubectl apply -f https://k8s.io/examples/pods/inject/dependent-envars.yaml
```
```
pod/dependent-envars-demo created
```
2. List the running Pods:
```shell
kubectl get pods dependent-envars-demo
```
```
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
dependent-envars-demo 1/1 Running 0 9s
```
3. Check the logs for the container running in your Pod:
```shell
kubectl logs pod/dependent-envars-demo
```
```
UNCHANGED_REFERENCE=$(PROTOCOL)://172.17.0.1:80
SERVICE_ADDRESS=https://172.17.0.1:80
ESCAPED_REFERENCE=$(PROTOCOL)://172.17.0.1:80
```
As shown above, you have defined the correct dependency reference of `SERVICE_ADDRESS`, bad dependency reference of `UNCHANGED_REFERENCE` and skip dependent references of `ESCAPED_REFERENCE`.
When an environment variable is already defined when being referenced,
the reference can be correctly resolved, such as in the `SERVICE_ADDRESS` case.
When the environment variable is undefined or only includes some variables, the undefined environment variable is treated as a normal string, such as `UNCHANGED_REFERENCE`. Note that incorrectly parsed environment variables, in general, will not block the container from starting.
The `$(VAR_NAME)` syntax can be escaped with a double `$`, ie: `$$(VAR_NAME)`.
Escaped references are never expanded, regardless of whether the referenced variable
is defined or not. This can be seen from the `ESCAPED_REFERENCE` case above.
## {{% heading "whatsnext" %}}
* Learn more about [environment variables](/docs/tasks/inject-data-application/environment-variable-expose-pod-information/).
* See [EnvVarSource](/docs/reference/generated/kubernetes-api/{{< param "version" >}}/#envvarsource-v1-core).