Configuration Via Environment Variables

[danieledwardgeorgehitchcock]

Hi,

Given that Docker is now an option for installation, it'd be great if the application could be configured via Environment variables.

[chrivers]

This is not impossible, but it is a bit tricky. The config.yaml file for bifrost contains structured data, not just a flat list of key=value pairs, so it doesn't map super cleanly to environment settings.

It would also make the setup procedure have even more branching directions, and it's already complicated enough, I think.

Something I do have planned, is adding an environment var to specify the location of config.yaml and state.yaml, though.

[chrivers]

Is there a specific use case you have in mind, or a certain problem you're trying to solve?

[danieledwardgeorgehitchcock]

The reason this config via Environment Variables would be of an advantage is in an infrastructure as code environment such as docker-compose.

An example (which I feel ties in quite nicely with it's symbiosis) of how a structured configuration via environment variables can be achieved is Z2M itself to which, a basic config for Bifrost can be achieved with something like the following in a docker-compose file:

services:
  bifrost:
    image: ghcr.io/chrivers/bifrost:latest
    container_name: bifrost
    restart: unless-stopped
    network_mode: host
    environment:
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BIFROST_CERT_FILE: certs/cert.pem
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_NAME: Bifrost
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_MAC: 00:11:22:33:44:55
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_IPADDRESS: 10.12.0.20
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_NETMASK: 255.255.255.0
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_GATEWAY: 10.12.0.1
      BIFROST_CONFIG_BRIDGE_TIMEZONE: Europe/Copenhagen
      BIFROST_CONFIG_Z2M_SERVER1_URL: ws://10.0.0.100:8080

This would allow for configuration to be applied at runtime which could help with more complicated infrastructure configurations such as docker swarm or kubernetes

[danieledwardgeorgehitchcock]

This is not impossible, but it is a bit tricky. The config.yaml file for bifrost contains structured data, not just a flat list of key=value pairs, so it doesn't map super cleanly to environment settings.

It would also make the setup procedure have even more branching directions, and it's already complicated enough, I think.

Something I do have planned, is adding an environment var to specify the location of config.yaml and state.yaml, though.

This would be super useful for having the yaml's in a separate directory and using docker volumes :-)

[chrivers]

Having an environment variables point to a yaml file to load is much, much easier than somehow supporting putting all config values into the environment.

I'll mark this issue as a feature request for that :)