env-file.md

description	keywords	title	notoc
Declare default environment variables in a file	fig, composition, compose, docker, orchestration, environment, env file	Declare default environment variables in file	true

Compose supports declaring default environment variables in an environment file named .env placed in the folder where the docker-compose command is executed (current working directory).

Syntax Rules

These syntax rules apply to the .env file:

• Compose expects each line in an env file to be in VAR=VAL format.
• Lines beginning with # (i.e. comments) are ignored.
• Blank lines are ignored.
• There is no special handling of quotation marks.

Compose file and CLI variables

The environment variables you define here will be used for variable substitution in your Compose file, and can also be used to define the following CLI variables:

• COMPOSE_API_VERSION
• COMPOSE_CONVERT_WINDOWS_PATHS
• COMPOSE_FILE
• COMPOSE_HTTP_TIMEOUT
• COMPOSE_TLS_VERSION
• COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME
• DOCKER_CERT_PATH
• DOCKER_HOST
• DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY

Note: Values present in the environment at runtime will always override those defined inside the .env file. Similarly, values passed via command-line arguments take precedence as well.

More Compose documentation

• User guide
• Command line reference
• Compose file reference