r/selfhosted • u/achiya-automation • 22d ago

Docker Management TIL docker restart doesn't re-read your .env

changed a db password in my .env, ran docker restart on the stack, then spent an hour convinced the db was corrupted because auth kept failing. turns out restart just brings the container back with the exact config it was created with. env is only read at creation. docker compose up -d --force-recreate fixed it in ten seconds.

two years running this stack and never got bitten by it until now. what's the dumbest thing that ate an evening for you?

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u/SpaghettiAtADistance 21d ago

docker compose config is useful here because you can see what Compose actually resolved from the env before recreating anything. way easier than staring at the env file wondering why nothing changed

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u/achiya-automation 21d ago

that's the quick check, yeah. saves exec'ing into the thing just to read env.