to me, the error reason was the path of docker-compose.yml(using git repository), seted on Compose path field

Compose path: /some-project/docker-compose.yml

Before:

version: '3.4'
services:
  some-project:
    env_file:
      -  stack.env
    build:
      context: .
    image: some-project
    restart: always
    ports:
      - '8080:80'

After(Working): returning to the root directory with …/stack.env

version: '3.4'
services:
  some-project:
    env_file:
      - ../stack.env
    build:
      context: .
    image: some-project
    restart: always
    ports:
      - '8080:80'

Obs: I know it doesn’t answer your question, but it could be related.

My workaround is manually insert stack.env file inside portainer’s docker volume then i updated related docker stack and now it works.

Tried using local (docker.sock) environment and Portainer agent environment. Both give errors saying stack.env can’t be found.

With portainer agent, it worked after trying the suggestion from JuniorC07. changing the path of stack.env to ../stack.env

Any updates on this? It is reproducible for me in Portainer Business Edition 2.18.3

I am also experiencing the same issue running Community Edition 2.18.1.

I have tried using “.env” & “stack.env” and it is still throwing errors.

What fixed it for me is in the compose web editor in Portainer, I changed ALL instances of:

env_file:
      - .env

to

env_file:
      - stack.env

I am using Portainer Community Edition 2.18.3. You can’t just change one .env to stack.env, or it will still throw errors. You have to change all of them.

Seeing the same behavior on EE 2.12.1

I can see the problem. When deploying a stack using web editor you can define Env Vars in Portainer UI and refer to a stack.env file. Portainer then creates a stack.env file along with the compose file and writes all the vars to that.

This is not the case when deploying from Git, if you refer to stack.env it is expected to be in the repo. We clone the repo but do not add any files to that location as it will get overridden at next update.

We should however clarify this in the documentation.

It seems Portainer itself is checking the existence of env_file entries. Since Portainer is running as a container, it can’t find the files unless you add a volume to the host file.

Example solution: Your stack:

version: '3.9'

services:
  foo:
    image: foo:latest
    env_file:
      - /opt/portainer-config/my-stack-config/foo.env

Portainer stack:

# ...

  portainer:
    image: portainer/portainer-ce:2.18.4
    command: -H tcp://tasks.agent:9001 --tlsskipverify
    ports:
      - "9443:9443"
      - "9000:9000"
      - "8000:8000"
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
      - portainer_data:/data
      - /opt/portainer-config:/opt/portainer-config:ro # Paths must match!
# ...

Important:

• The path inside portainer MUST equal the path on the host.
• The .env file:s must exist on every single node on which the stack may run. Think about an cifs volume or something similar.

Tried using local (docker.sock) environment and Portainer agent environment. Both give errors saying stack.env can’t be found.

With portainer agent, it worked after trying the suggestion from JuniorC07. changing the path of stack.env to ../stack.env

I am experiencing the exact opposite on Portainer 2.16.2, Docker Standalone environment connected through portainer/agent:latest:

• env_file: stack.env works
• env_file: ../stack.env -> file not found

This thread and the documentation could really use some clarification on this.

Hello, just a couple more, hopefully useful, use cases 😃

Using “stack.env” does not currently work when:

• Using Portainer CE 2.16.1
• Using a Docker Standalone environment
• Trying to deploy a stack through a git repository.

It does work, however, by using “…/stack.env” as path instead.

Using “stack.env” on the other hand, works just fine when:

• Using Portainer CE 2.16.1
• Using a Docker Standalone environment
• Trying to deploy a stack directly with Web editor.

Ditto on EE 2.12.1, running on a swarm

When I go into the portainer vol, the compose folder that it’s looking for doesn’t exist. If I create the stack and then add env_file to the compose, it’s never created in the compose folder created for the id.

If I create an empty file in that folder the stack is able to be updated with the env_file definition, but the file isn’t updated with the env set in the gui.

@christianstrauch, @ecker00 and @voslucas : Did you tried this? https://github.com/portainer/portainer/issues/6701#issuecomment-1704036982

Portainer itself is running as a docker service, which means that you need to add volumes that matches the host path. Otherwise portainer can not “see” the files 🙂

Seems like a bug. Trying to deploy on CE v2.19.4, and the Stack YAML editor says To reference the .env file in your compose file, use ‘stack.env’., but doing just that causes open /data/compose/3/stack.env: no such file or directory and it is not possible to update/deploy the stack.

volumes:
  - /opt/portainer-config:/opt/portainer-config:ro # Paths must match!

…

• The path inside portainer MUST equal the path on the host.

Thank you! I didn’t even think about the fact that portainer itself is a container and the fact that by default it might assume the pathing provided in env_file is a portainer container path and not a host path.

I added /nfs/configs:/nfs/configs:ro as one of my portainer bind mounts and then immediately all of my .env files starting with /nfs/configs pathing were found.

On my end this is easily reproduced using the following:

Docker Standalone, using a server & a couple agents CPU Arch: x86_64 Relative path: /mnt/portainer on local filesystem

Brand new repo with only example.yml: https://github.com/portainer/portainer/assets/81395386/c988aa42-3a7f-4823-8bf1-1d165102f630

Full portainer config screen: https://github.com/portainer/portainer/assets/81395386/8dc12d24-f044-4a28-972f-103194877433

example.yml itself contains only the following:

services:
  hello_world:
    image: hello-world
    env_file:
      - stack.env

The error: https://github.com/portainer/portainer/assets/81395386/10d641c4-414a-47f1-8554-d667eba3e2e9

Either removing the env_file entry or disabling relative paths results in a successful deployment. Combining the two results in an error. This worked previously, as I had a stack configured that way which broke not too long ago. I could no longer pull and redeploy that stack, or create a new stack with the same config.

I tried rolling back the versions to test but it resulted in some instability. I haven’t had time to spin up fresh environments to play with and see if I can figure out when it broke.

For some reason I have no luck using stack.env or ../stack.env. Both result in file not found. I tried the web editor and also uploading my own compose file. Any ideas?

Portainer 2.16.1, Docker Standalone environment.

Edit:

I really need this to work as I have to run a dozen services and there are many env vars some of which are used by multiple services. I could go and list them all one by one for each service in the compose file, but maintaining them and updating them will be a nightmare.

There currently is a difference on using env_file: stack.yml between Portainer on Docker Standalone and Portainer on Docker Swarm, see also #6814.

According to this other issue it is “due to a lack of env file support in docker stack deploy”.

But I think there are some big misunderstandings between using a .env file to substitute/insert values into a docker-compose.yml and using an env_file for directly inserting environment variable into a container.

It’s perfectly valid and possible to do the latter. Assume a stack.yml (or docker-compose.yml, the file name does not matter) contains:

version: '3.8'

services:
  test:
    image: ubuntu
    command: env
    env_file: stack.env

And there is a stack.env file containing e.g.:

MYVAR1=something
FOO=bar

Running docker stack deploy -c stack.yml test succeeds and prints in the log (docker service logs test_test):

test_test.1.zh6ijswlq1q0@node3.swarm.idial.fh    | PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
test_test.1.zh6ijswlq1q0@node3.swarm.idial.fh    | HOSTNAME=9194cb8346cc
test_test.1.zh6ijswlq1q0@node3.swarm.idial.fh    | FOO=bar
test_test.1.zh6ijswlq1q0@node3.swarm.idial.fh    | MYVAR1=something
test_test.1.zh6ijswlq1q0@node3.swarm.idial.fh    | HOME=/root

@fcaspani01 nice that it works but extremely bodgy and non-portable workaround.

@Klionheart

Thank you for the additional information. I figured out how to reproduce this.

[1] I changed the name of my stack.env to stack.env.bak in my repo [2] Create Stack with wordpress.yml in my repo using - stack.env [3] Upload my local stack.env [4] Received error [5] Updated my wordpress.yml to - ../stack.env [6] Deployed without error

TODO: Update our Blog with further instructions for Git Repositories

Thanks!

Hi again @tamarahenson, I think I see the misunderstanding here.

I’m not trying to reference an existing “stack.env” inside the git repository. In fact I absolutely do not want an .env file in the git repository since it contains secrets.

The idea is to do as documented in https://www.portainer.io/blog/using-env-files-in-stacks-with-portainer where it is explained that you can add Environment variables to the local Portainer stack, and then reference them en masse by using “stack.env” as an env_file, instead of manually referencing them one by one, in the docker-compose.yaml.

This indeed works with Web editor in Docker Standalone, but not in “Repository” mode where you need to use “…/stack.env” instead.

Hopefully this is more clear, thank you for your time 😃

@Klionheart

Is this what you are trying to do here:

Thanks!

@tamarahenson the idea is to do:

where the docker-compose.yaml referenced is:

version: "3"

volumes:
    db-data:

services:
  db:
    image: postgres:12
    volumes:
      - db-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=$DB_NAME
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=$DB_PASSWORD
  web:
    image: healthchecks:v2.4.1
    env_file:
        - stack.env
        [...]

which should work according to https://www.portainer.io/blog/using-env-files-in-stacks-with-portainer

but results in error: error: open /data/compose/51/stack.env: no such file or directory

If I put “- …/stack.env” as the env_file in the compose.yaml, instead, it works, I guess because the stack.env file is generated as /data/compose/stack.env.

Interestingly, if I just use the same docker-compose.yaml directly in portainer (with Web Editor) it instead works with “- stack.env” as expected.

Hey, just wanted to say that I have the same problem. I’m deploying a docker-compose.yml file that sits in a subdirectory of a git repo. Trying to use stack.env as the env_file doesn’t work but …/stack.env does

PS: I’m using Portainer BE 2.16.1

I am also experiencing the same issue, referencing ‘stack.env’ as per the blog post results in an error:

open /data/compose/89/stack.env: no such file or directory

EE 2.14.0, docker swarm mode.

This is a bit confusing, as I’m fairly certain I am following the blog post instructions correctly.

Same issue for 2.13.1 on EE. I had to revert to specifying environment variables manually… If anyone needs to quickly generate required YAML, you can use the following.

Switch to “Advanced Mode” copy everything into a file somewhere (i.e. /tmp/z).

EXAMPLE
$ cat /tmp/z
VAR1="TEST"
VAR2="TEST"

awk -F= 'BEGIN{print "    environment: "}{print "      "$1": \"${"$1"}\""}' /tmp/z

Which should output

    environment:
      VAR1: "${VAR1}"
      VAR2: "${VAR2}"

same issue here