How to pass environment variables to test kitchen in .kitchen.yml

Question

I am trying develop a cookbook to make a flask app work with gunicorn and nginx. I have been successful to the point that the app is running very well with a local sqlite database, see my cookbook at https://github.com/harrywang/flasky-cookbook. The flask app uses environment variables for sending emails such as: MAIL_USERNAME = os.environ.get('MAIL_USERNAME'), how I can pass those environment variables to the ubuntu virtual machines using test kitchen during kitchen converge?

Ancier

NOTE: when use env in gunicorn.conf env MAIL_USERNAME="AKIAJ6NFIS3" double quotes must be used - single quotes do not work, while using --env single quotes work - to be safe: always use double quotes. – Ancier

Answer 1

There is no way to pass environment variables using .kitchen.yml configuration file (see test-kitchen/test-kitchen#662 issue).

I recommend you to set the environment variables in the gunicorn.conf.erb template using the --env argument:

exec gunicorn --env SECRET_KEY=<%= @secret_key %> --env [...] --workers 3 --bind unix:<%= node['flasky-cookbook']['gunicorn_socket'] %> -m 007 --log-file <%= node['flasky-cookbook']['gunicorn_logfile']%> manage:app

Monoploid

I tried exec gunicorn --env MAIL_SERVER='email-smtp.us-east-1.amazonaws.com',MAIL_USERNAME='',MAIL_PASSWORD='-redacted-',FLASK_ADMIN='-redacted-' --workers 3 --bind unix:<%= node['flasky-cookbook']['gunicorn_socket'] %> -m 007 --log-file <%= node['flasky-cookbook']['gunicorn_logfile']%> manage:app but did not work - I kitchen login and printenv but cannot see those env variables. Any thought? – Ancier

@Gleam I don't think this is entirely incorrect. I know that you can read ENV variables from the .kitchen.yml file, but I was talking about the other part of the problem: passing the variable to the application. I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that he knew how to do the first part. If you still think this answer is wrong, I will delete it. – Monoploid

@harryw seems like you can also use env to set environment variables. These variables will only be defined inside the application run with gunicorn. Not in your kitchen shell. – Monoploid

I was mostly referring to the first part, you can absolutely pass through environment variables. – Gleam

OK, @coderanger. Thanks. I removed the first part. I didn't know that, sorry. I know, your answer is better :-P – Monoploid

@Monoploid thanks a lot for your help. how can I check those env variables have been successfully passed in if I cannot use printenv? Is my way of passing multiple env variable by putting them together with comma correct? I am asking because I could not make flasky email function to work :(. – Ancier

@harryw You are welcome ;-) You can get the pid of the gunicorn process and look at its environment file in /proc. For example with: cat /proc/$(pidof gunicorn)/environ. For the variables, try passing multiple --env options or use multiple env SECRET_KEY="..." lines before calling gunicorn. – Monoploid

Answer 2

You can use Erb formatting in your .kitchen.yml:

provisioner:
  name: chef-solo
  attributes:
    mycookbook:
      mail_username: <%= ENV['MAIL_USERNAME'] %>

And then use node['mycookbook']['mail_username'] in your recipe to pass the value to the application.

Gleam

I am confused: how can I "use node['mycookbook']['mail_username'] in your recipe to pass the value to the application"? Is your solution passing my host (macbook pro) env variables to guest (ubuntu virtual box instance)? I am very new to Chef - sorry if I am asking stupid questions :) – Ancier

You'll need to fork the flasky cookbook and add something to this template file: github.com/harrywang/flasky-cookbook/blob/master/templates/… to set the environment variable. – Gleam

Also check out github.com/poise/application_python/blob/master/test/cookbooks/… for a simpler Flask deployment example. – Gleam

thanks a lot for your help. adding something to the template is similar to the solution given by zuazo. The application cookbook seems great but do you know any detailed tutorials on that? The README is too brief for beginners like me. – Ancier