docker-compose and django secret key - django

Question

I have build my postgres and django appplication using the following
version: "3.8"
services:
django:
build: .
container_name: django
command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
volumes:
- .:/usr/src/app
ports:
- "8000:8000"
depends_on:
- db
db:
image: postgres
container_name: pgdb
environment:
- POSTGRES_DB=postgres
- POSTGRES_USER=postgres
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
When I check the docker-desktop, I got 2 docker containers, "django" and "pgdb".
When I check the django, it says
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.
Originally, on my windows 10 machine, I saved the secret key in the windows variable. What is the way to build the docker-compose so it has the secret get?
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get('DJANGO_SECRET_KEY')

Answer 1

You would need to create a .env file with the SECRET_KEY.
In the django_secrets.env you can store like this:
SECRET_KEY=my_secret_key
Then in the docker-compose.yml file you can specify the django_secrets.env file:
version: "3.8"
services:
django:
build: .
container_name: django
command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
env_file:
- ./django_secrets.env
volumes:
- .:/usr/src/app
ports:
- "8000:8000"
depends_on:
- db
db:
image: postgres
container_name: pgdb
environment:
- POSTGRES_DB=postgres
- POSTGRES_USER=postgres
- POSTGRES_PASSWORD=postgres
And then you can get the value in the settings.py file like this:
SECRET_KEY = os.environ.get("SECRET_KEY", 'my_default_secret_key')
You can have the django_secrets.env file in any path, you just need to specify the path in the docker-compose.yml file. Also you can name it as you like