nodeSolidServer / nodeSolidServer/node-solid-server

Docker image defaults to loading ssl cert/key from environment variables

Open
#1,453 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
1.8k
Forks
308
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

For configuration of n-s-s, the readme file specifies

CLI flags take precedence over Environment variables, which take precedence over entries in the config file.

I see that the Dockerfile uses environment variables to specify the ssl cert and key:
https://github.com/solid/node-solid-server/blob/ca5bffbf2299a334eb6c5b7d26b37458df8f6624/docker-image/src/Dockerfile#L23-L24

This caused me some confusion when I first tried to configure the cert and key using the config file. It continued to use the values from the env variables over my config file. I was able to override this with a flag.

I think it'd be a good idea to indicate in the docker section of the readme that these environment variables are set, and that if you want to override them you must use the flag rather than the config file.

I initially had a large draft ticket written for this problem, until I found the Dockerfile environment variable and looked at the documentation again and found the section about precedence. I thought I was going crazy because it was loading some values from the config file but not others. I wonder if it could be made clearer, either in debug output, or the documentation about this precedence (for example during debug the server could output something like 'using config setting x from [cli|env|config]'

Thanks!

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Docker section of the README and compare it with the environment variable definitions in docker-image/src/Dockerfile at lines 23–24. Document that these variables are set by the image and that CLI flags are required to override them instead of config-file values. No test is mentioned; done means the Docker configuration and precedence behavior are clear to readers.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
docker, javascript
Domain
devops, documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.