Docker: Utilising Docker contexts in Makefiles

This documentation is part of the Advanced context usages guide. You can view the complete guide here: How to use Docker contexts in your scripts.

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• Deploy to production with a single docker-compose up command. No additional configuration is required: simply start your containers.
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You can also set the DOCKER_CONTEXT variable in a Makefile. Here is an example of exporting the variable and executing a Docker container:

# Makefile
export DOCKER_CONTEXT=<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com

getIp:
	docker run --rm alpine wget -q -O - ifconfig.me

After creating the Makefile, invoke the command using:

make getIp

If you encounter the error Makefile: *** missing separator. Stop., ensure the docker run [...] line starts with a TAB character, not spaces.

Leveraging .env files in Makefiles

You can further simplify configuration by including a .env file in your Makefile. This approach ensures centralised management of your environment settings:

# Makefile
include .env
export

getIp:
	docker run --rm alpine wget -q -O - ifconfig.me

Create a .env file with this content:

DOCKER_CONTEXT=<XXXXXX>.stackhero-network.com

Then execute the command:

make getIp

If you encounter the error Makefile: *** missing separator. Stop., verify that the docker run [...] line begins with a TAB character rather than spaces.