how to pass dockerfile argument from docker-compose file?

 It should be very convenient and dynamic, if we can set our environment variable on docker build time.

since I want to turn graphql playground on and off during the production deployment, I already use the 

NODE_ENV to control the playground feature in the .env file.

in .net file

NODE_ENV=dev

GraphQLModule.forRoot({

      playground: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'dev',

      debug: process.env.NODE_ENV === 'dev',

      autoSchemaFile: true,

    }),

we can use ARG to set a variable in the dockerfile that we can pass in during docker build run.

ARG node_env_var

ENV NODE_ENV=$node_env_var

RUN echo $node_env_var

here is the full content of Dockfile

FROM node:14 as production

ARG node_env_var

ENV NODE_ENV=$node_env_var

RUN echo $node_env_var

WORKDIR /usr/src/api

COPY package.json .

COPY yarn.lock .

RUN yarn global add @nestjs/cli

RUN yarn install --production=true

## install NIC s a computer networking utility for reading from and 

# writing to network connections using TCP or UDP.

RUN apt-get -q update && apt-get -qy install netcat

COPY . .

RUN yarn build

CMD ["sh", "-c", "yarn typeorm migration:run && yarn start:prod"]

in the Docker-compose.yml file we can set the args variable. when I run the deployment in the production environment, i can simply change the node_env_var: production

build: 

            context: server

            target: production

            dockerfile: Dockerfile

            args:

                node_env_var: dev

here is the docker-compse.yml file

version: "3.8"

services:

    mysqldb:

        image: mysql

        environment: 

            - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=Mys0l@123456

            - MYSQL_DATABASE=hyrecar

        ports: 

            - 3306:3306

        command: --default-authentication-plugin=mysql_native_password

        networks:

            - shared-network

        volumes: 

            - db-config:/etc/mysql

            - db-data:/var/lib/mysql

            - ./db/backup/files:/data_backup/data

       

    #acting as a proxy

    nginx:

        image: nginx:latest

        container_name: nginx-prod

        volumes: 

            - ./nginx/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf

        ports: 

            - 81:80

        command: /bin/sh -c "nginx -g 'daemon off;'"    

        depends_on: 

            api-prod:

                condition: service_healthy

            app-prod:

                condition: service_started

        networks: 

            - shared-network

    api-prod:

        container_name: nestjs_api_prod

        image: nestjs_api_prod:1.0.0.0

        build: 

            context: server

            target: production

            dockerfile: Dockerfile

            args:

                node_env_var: dev

        command: sh -c './bin/wait-for -t 0 mysqldb:3306 -- yarn start:prod'

        depends_on: 

            - mysqldb

        networks: 

            - shared-network

        ports: 

            - 9000:9000

        restart: unless-stopped

        healthcheck:

            test: ["CMD", "curl", "http://api-prod:9000"]

            interval: 5s

            timeout: 3s

            retries: 6     

        

    app-prod:

        container_name: rect_app_prod

        image: rect_app_prod:1.0.0

        build:

            context: web

            target: production

            dockerfile: Dockerfile

        command: yarn run start:prod

        ports: 

            - 3000:3000

        networks: 

            - shared-network

        restart: unless-stopped

#intialize network

networks: 

    shared-network:

#Initializing docker compose volumes

volumes: 

    db-config:

    db-data:

for development and test environment deployment.

set node_env_var: dev in docker-compose.yml 

run docker-compose build to rebuilt the container

execute docker-compose up to run all containers

in the production, we just need to change node_env_var: production

then we can run docker-compose build & docker-compose up to turn off graphql playground feature for security reason.

 Please Note you can not simply update the variable in the docker-compose yaml file and run docker-compose up since the variable is passing in at docker-compose build time, not the run time. so We have to run docker-compose build process to take the effect.