Config Variables

DevSpace allows you to make your configuration dynamic by using variables in devspace.yaml.

While there is no need to explicitly define a config variable, it allows you to customize the behavior of DevSpace when working with the variable. Variables are defined within the vars section of devspace.yaml.

Question

images:
  database:
    image: "mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION}"
vars:
- name: MYSQL_VERSION
  question: Which mysql version do you want to use?
  default: "5.7"

Options

images:
  database:
    image: "mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION}"
vars:
- name: MYSQL_VERSION
  question: Which mysql version do you want to use?
  options:
  - "5.5"
  - "5.6"
  - "5.7"

Password

images:
  database:
    image: "mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION}"
vars:
- name: MYSQL_VERSION
  question: Which mysql version do you want to use?
  password: true

Environment Variable

images:
  database:
    image: "mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION}"
vars:
- name: MYSQL_VERSION
  source: env
  default: "5.5"

Implicit Variable

images:
  database:
    image: "mysql:${MYSQL_VERSION}"
vars: {}

tip

DevSpace allows you to use config variables without explicitly defining them as variables. You can simply reference them via ${MY_ENV_VAR} anywhere in your devspace.yaml. Implicit variables use source: all.

Source

The source option of a config variable expects either:

• all means to check environment variables first and then ask a question if no env variable is defined (default)
• env means to check environment variables only
• input means to ask the user a question once (values will be cached in .devspace/generated.yaml)

Input Caching

If source is either all or input and the variable is not defined, the user will be asked to provide a value either using a generic question or the one provided via the question option. The user-provided value will be cached in .devspace/generated.yaml and the user will only be asked again after the cache has been cleared first using:

devspace reset vars

Predefined Variables

DevSpace provides some variables that are filled automatically and can be used within the config. These can be helpful for image tagging and other use cases:

• DEVSPACE_RANDOM: A random 6 character long string
• DEVSPACE_TIMESTAMP A unix timestamp when the config was loaded
• DEVSPACE_GIT_COMMIT: A short hash of the local repo's current git commit
• DEVSPACE_SPACE: The name of the Space that is currently used
• DEVSPACE_SPACE_NAMESPACE: The Kubernetes namespace of the Space in the cluster
• DEVSPACE_USERNAME: The username currently logged into DevSpace Cloud

Example: Using ${DEVSPACE_GIT_COMMIT}

images:
  default:
    image: myrepo/devspace
    tag: ${DEVSPACE_GIT_COMMIT}-${DEVSPACE_TIMESTAMP}

Explanation:
This config will tag the image in the form of myrepo/devspace:d9b4bcd-1559766514. Many other combinations are possible with this method.

Useful Commands

devspace list vars

To get a list of all variables defined in the devspace.yaml, you can run this command:

devspace list vars

devspace reset vars

Once DevSpace asks you to provide a value for a variable, this value will be stored in the variables cache, so you will not asked about this variable again. To reset the variables cache, run:

devspace reset vars

DevSpace will fill the variables cache again, once you run the next build or deployment command.

devspace print

The following command prints the config after all variables have been replaced:

devspace print

You can optionally add the -p / --profiles flag to this command.

export VAR_NAME=value

The value for a config variable can also be set by defining an environment variable named [VAR_NAME]. Setting the value of a config variable with name ${IMAGE_NAME} would be possible by setting an environment value IMAGE_NAME.

Windows Powershell

$env:IMAGE_NAME = "some-value"

Mac Terminal

export IMAGE_NAME="some-value"

Linux Bash

export IMAGE_NAME="some-value"