Can you use a .env file for a stand-alone Dockerfile?

Question

I am working on a simple Docker image that has a large number of environment variables. Are you able to import an environment variable file like with docker-compose? I canno

Answer 1

I really like @halfers approach, but this could also work. docker run takes an optional parameter called --env-file which is super helpful.

So your docker file could look like this.

COPY .env .env

and then in a build script use:

docker build -t my_docker_image . && docker run --env-file .env my_docker_image