[BUG] docker compose on docker desktop not reading --env-file

[msingh0101]

Description

when using docker compose with docker desktop, it seems to be ignoring the --env-file arg and instead using the default .env file found in the directory. Im running docker desktop on windows.

my .env file looks like this:

VERSION=local
ENV=local

my .env_dev file looks like this:

VERSION=dev
ENV=dev

my dev docker-compose has this snippet:

services:
  my_app:
    container_name: my_app_${ENV}
    image: "my_app:${VERSION}"
    build:
      context: ..
      dockerfile: .devcontainer/Dockerfile
      target: my_app_dev
      args:
        ENV: ${ENV:-local}
    environment:
      ENV:${ENV:-local}
      PYTHONPATH:${PYTHONPATH} 

my dockerfile looks like this:

FROM python:latest as base
ARG ENV
....
....
FROM base as my_app_dev
COPY "./.devcontainer/.env_$ENV" .

When then run the following in the directory where the compose and .env and .env_dev files are:

docker system prune -f
docker compose --env-file .env_dev  build --no-cache```

I get this error:

 => ERROR [my_app my_app_dev 1/3] COPY ./.devcontainer/.env_local .

There is no .env_local file. im expecting that it would be .env_dev. It seems to still be reading the .env file. Why is it not reading the ENV value from the .env_dev file, which should have the value 'dev' and so the line it should be COPY ./.devcontainer/.env_dev .

Steps To Reproduce

1. create the above files
2. one windows (with docker desktop) run docker compose --env-file .env_dev build --no-cache in the docker-compose folder

Compose Version

Docker Compose version v2.21.0

Docker Environment

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:    24.0.6
 Context:    default
 Debug Mode: false
 Plugins:
  buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.11.2
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
  compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.21.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Server:
 Containers: 1
  Running: 1
  Paused: 0
  Stopped: 0
 Images: 2
 Server Version: 24.0.6
 Storage Driver: overlay2
  Backing Filesystem: extfs
  Supports d_type: true
  Using metacopy: false
  Native Overlay Diff: true
  userxattr: false
 Logging Driver: json-file
 Cgroup Driver: cgroupfs
 Cgroup Version: 1
 Plugins:
  Volume: local
  Network: bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay
  Log: awslogs fluentd gcplogs gelf journald json-file local logentries splunk syslog
 Swarm: inactive
 Runtimes: io.containerd.runc.v2 runc
 Default Runtime: runc
 Init Binary: docker-init
 containerd version: 8165feabfdfe38c65b599c4993d227328c231fca
 runc version: v1.1.8-0-g82f18fe
 init version: de40ad0
 Security Options:
  seccomp
   Profile: unconfined
 Kernel Version: 5.15.90.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
 Operating System: Docker Desktop
 OSType: linux
 Architecture: x86_64
 CPUs: 16
 Total Memory: 19.25GiB
 Name: docker-desktop
 ID: 27fa49f8-2bb6-4fc3-8a08-342f8072a5a4
 Docker Root Dir: /var/lib/docker
 Debug Mode: false
 HTTP Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 HTTPS Proxy: http.docker.internal:3128
 No Proxy: hubproxy.docker.internal
 Experimental: false
 Insecure Registries:
  hubproxy.docker.internal:5555
  127.0.0.0/8
 Live Restore Enabled: false

WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_bps_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.read_iops_device support
WARNING: No blkio throttle.write_iops_device support
WARNING: daemon is not using the default seccomp profile

Anything else?

No response

[msingh0101]

So this seems to only happen when trying this from docker-in-docker. if I run the docker-compose command from the host, it seems to read the --env-file arg correctly and passes those variables onto the dockerfile when building

im in a vscode .devcontainer - based on latest debian/bookworm image. i am mounting the docker.sock from the host into that devcontainer

[ndeloof]

Try running docker compose --env-file .env_dev config to confirm the resulting model has the expected variables interpolated

[msingh0101]

Try running docker compose --env-file .env_dev config to confirm the resulting model has the expected variables interpolated

It does not from the docker-in-docker session (it shows env_local, which implies its ignorning the --env-file arg and using the default .env). outside, it does show the expected value based on the --env-file argument

[milas]

What does docker compose version show inside your devcontainer?

[msingh0101]

What does docker compose version show inside your devcontainer?

the version is listed above in my original post: Docker Compose version v2.21.0

[github-actions[bot]]

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