How to set an Env Variable in Circle CI

Question

I am running a DB job using Maven liquibase plugin on circle ci. I need to read the parameters like username,password, dburl etc from AWS Parameter store.But when I try to set the value returned by aws cli to a custom variable, its always blank/empty. I know the value exists because the same command on mac terminal returns a value.

I am using a Bash script to install AWS CLI with circle ci job.When I echo the password with in the .sh file I see the value but when I echo it on my config.yml I see blank empty value. I also try to get the value using aws ssm with the config.yml file but even there the value is blank empty.

My Config.yml

version: 2

references:
defaults: &defaults
working_directory: ~/tmp

environment:
  PROJECT_NAME: DB Job

build-filters: &filters 
filters:
  tags:
    only: /^v[0-9]{1,2}.[0-9]{1,2}.[0-9]{1,2}-(dev)/
  branches:
    ignore: /.*/
jobs:
checkout-code:
<<: *defaults

docker:
  - image: circleci/openjdk:8-jdk-node

steps: 
  - attach_workspace:
       at: ~/tmp

  - checkout

  - restore_cache:
      key: cache-{{ checksum "pom.xml" }}

  - save_cache:
      paths:
        - ~/.m2
      key: cache-{{ checksum "pom.xml" }}

  - persist_to_workspace:
      root: ~/tmp
      paths: ./

build-app:
<<: *defaults

docker:
  - image: circleci/openjdk:8-jdk-node


steps:
  - attach_workspace:
       at: ~/tmp

  - restore_cache:
      key: cache-{{ checksum "pom.xml" }}

  - run: chmod 700 resources/circleci/*.sh   
  - run: 
      name: Getting DB password
      command: resources/circleci/env-setup.sh

  - run: echo 'export ENV="$(echo $CIRCLE_TAG | cut -d '-' -f 2)"' >> $BASH_ENV
  - run: echo $ENV
  - run: echo $dbPasswordDev
  - run: export PASS=$(aws ssm get-parameters --names "/enterprise/org/dev/spring.datasource.password" --with-decryption --query "Parameters[0].Value" | tr -d '"') >> $BASH_ENV
  - run: echo $PASS
  - run: mvn resources:resources liquibase:update -P$ENV,pre-release


workflows:
version: 2
build-deploy:
jobs:
  - checkout-code:
      <<: *filters



  - build-app:
      requires:
        - checkout-code

      <<: *filters

env-setup.sh

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y python-pip python-dev
sudo pip install awscli


aws configure set aws_access_key_id $AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID
aws configure set aws_secret_access_key $AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
aws configure set aws_region $AWS_DEFAULT_REGION


dbPassword=`aws ssm get-parameters --names "/enterprise/org/dev/spring.datasource.password" --with-decryption --query "Parameters[0].Value" | tr -d '"' `
echo "dbPassword = ${dbPassword}"

export dbPasswordDev=$dbPassword >> $BASH_ENV
echo $"Custom = $dbPasswordDev"

When I echo $dbPasswordDev with in env-set.sh I see the value however in config.yml I don't see the value and I see blank/empty string. Also when I try to echo $PASS with in config.yml I expect to see the value however I see blank empty string

Exercitation

Answer 1

According to their official documentation, you need to echo the "export foo=bar" into $BASH_ENV (which is just a file that runs when the a bash session starts):

so in your env-setup.sh file:

echo "export dbPasswordDev=$dbPassword" >> $BASH_ENV

Loireatlantique

Answer 2

Here is a more advanced case where variables can be loaded from .env file.

version: 2
aliases:

  - &step_process_dotenv
      run:
        name: Process .env file variables
        command: echo "export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)" >> $BASH_ENV

jobs:
  build:
    working_directory: ~/project
    docker:
      - image: php
    steps:
      - checkout
      - *step_process_dotenv

Source repository with tests: https://github.com/integratedexperts/circleci-sandbox/tree/feature/dotenv

CI run result: https://circleci.com/gh/integratedexperts/circleci-sandbox/14

Barbera