Why workflow level env variables are not passed down to the jobs?

[kasir-barati]

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Hi,

I am have a bit of problem here, according to my understanding we should be having access to the env variables defined at a workflow level in that workflow's job but here I am after my pipelines where failing for no reason I realized that my docker compose container had not access to some env variables: https://github.com/kasir-barati/you-say/blob/main/.github/workflows/backend-e2e-tests.workflow.yml#L26

And I thought I do not need to repeat myself here in this step: https://github.com/kasir-barati/you-say/blob/main/.github/workflows/backend-e2e-tests.workflow.yml#L73

But it seems I was wrong and if I wanna pass down a workflow layer env to a step I need to do it explicitly. Or at least it seems like it.

example

name: Backend e2e tests

# ...

env:
  # ...
  OAUTH_CONFIGURATION_CLIENT_SECRET: "client_secret_${{ github.run_id }}_${{ github.run_attempt }}"

jobs:
  build-and-test-backend-e2e:
    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
    timeout-minutes: 45
    if: ${{
      github.event.workflow_run.conclusion == 'success' ||
      github.event_name == 'workflow_dispatch' && inputs.run_backend_e2e_tests == true }}
    steps:
      # ...
      - if: ${{ steps.changed-paths.outputs.is-backend == 'true' }}
        name: Starting backend service
        run: docker compose up -d
        env:
          FUSIONAUTH_TENANT_ID: ${{ steps.terraform.outputs.fusionauth_tenant_id }}
          FUSIONAUTH_APPLICATION_ID: ${{ steps.terraform.outputs.fusionauth_application_id }}
          FUSIONAUTH_ADMIN_GROUP_ID: ${{ steps.terraform.outputs.fusionauth_admin_group_id }}
          DATABASE_URL: "mongodb://${{ env.MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME }}:${{ env.MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD }}@localhost:27017"
          APP_HOST: localhost
          FUSIONAUTH_OAUTH_SCOPES: offline_access openid
          # should I have done something like OAUTH_CONFIGURATION_CLIENT_SECRET: ${{ env.OAUTH_CONFIGURATION_CLIENT_SECRET }} here?
      # ...

Any help would be much appreciated 🙏.

[kasir-barati]

BTW I just change the codebase a little, but the main point is still OAUTH_CONFIGURATION_CLIENT_SECRET variable that is not being passed to the container.

[kasir-barati]

Just now I realized that does not matter even if I explicitly pass it down. And the worth part of it is that env variables are partly passed down to the docker container 🤔.

[kasir-barati]

I cannot understand why, accroding to that steps stdout it should have been able to pass down that env variable but here I am dumping all stdout and stderr of my docker container and it is clear that the variable is not available

WHAT in the world 🤯?

[kasir-barati]

This is absurd: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/variables#defining-environment-variables-for-a-single-workflow

Dunno what I am doing wrong here 🥲.

[kasir-barati]

I guess I had found my oversight. I was not passing the env variables to the docker container in my docker-compose.yml file. 🥲.

[kasir-barati]

Yes, that was the case. Here is the commit. My bad 😅.