James, It looks like your $VAR expands too early (in your current bash shell and not in the bash shell inside the container). I tested it by running $ podman run -d --name testctr2 docker.io/library/fedora sleep 3600 and then these commands $ podman exec -e VAR=bob testctr bash -c "env" | grep bob VAR=bob $ podman exec -e VAR=bob testctr bash -c "echo $VAR" | grep bob $ podman exec -e VAR=bob testctr bash -c "echo \$VAR" | grep bob bob $ Erik On Sun, Jun 27, 2021 at 1:32 PM Daniel Walsh <dwalsh(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote: > > On 6/27/21 06:41, James Miller wrote: > > Hi, > > I have a problem with an environment variable that I am passing into an exec session. The command has worked in the past but recently, I am unable to pass an environment variable that a called executable can see properly. If I run, podman exec -e VAR='bob' -it some_cont bash -c "env", the environment is printed out and includes the environment variable VAR='bob'. > > But I can not run podman exec .... bash -c "echo $VAR" successfully, nor in my current situation am I able to run podman exec -e PASSWORD="$var_I_just_read" .... bash -c "mysql -uroot -p${PASSWORD}... ". Because the env variable PASSWORD is not present, the mysql command asks for a password. This was certainly working ok previously, but doesn't seem to function now. > I have tried a bunch of different permutations, including running the command with real variables instead of environment variables, and it works ok. Also, I am sure that I used to be able to run 'podman exec -e SOMEVAR='Bob' -it cont_name bash -c "echo $SOMEVAR" and get Bob output. > > What am I doing wrong? > > MTIA, James > -- > James Stewart Miller Bsc(hons) Psych. > > _______________________________________________ > Podman mailing list -- podman(a)lists.podman.io > To unsubscribe send an email to podman-leave(a)lists.podman.io > > This looks like it is working correctly > > > var=hello; podman exec -e PASSWORD="$var" e8e0b9aa6ae06dd29079f9bdc7d032431a0d741ed6c3f4c42432ed3e9a759a49 printenv PASSWORD > hello > > > _______________________________________________ > Podman mailing list -- podman(a)lists.podman.io > To unsubscribe send an email to podman-leave(a)lists.podman.io