Running the Docker container

There are a number of options for doing this, depending on security requirements, preferences, etc. Here are a few options:

• Running the Docker container
  • Using docker create and docker cp
  • Using the --env-file flag in docker run
  • Using the -e flag to add them one-by-one in docker run

When finished, you can then run docker logs -f learning-lab to trail the logs of the running application, to ensure that it has started successfully.

Using docker create and docker cp

You can create a Docker container without running it, then copy a .env file defining your environment variables into the container. Then start the container's default command by running docker start <container>.

# Create the container, but don't start it yet
docker create --name learning-lab \
              --restart unless-stopped \
              -p 3000:3000 \
              learning-lab

# Copy the .env file from the host into the container
docker cp .env learning-lab:/usr/src/learning-lab/.env

# Start the container
docker start learning-lab

This is the recommended path because it securely stores your environment variables without exposing them in docker inspect, while still providing all the necessary information.

Using the --env-file flag in docker run

You can use the --env-file flag to run the Docker image with a .env file included. Note that this may expose your container's environment variables to external services that run docker inspect on your container.

$ docker run --env-file ./env learning-lab

Using the -e flag to add them one-by-one in docker run

By using the -e flag in your docker run command, you can inject each environment variable:

$ docker run -e APP_ID=1 -e WEBHOOK_SECRET=shhhimasecret learning-lab

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