Can't set Password for Postgres using docker-compose

Question

I am not able to set Password for Postgres using Docker-compose. Postgres is loading without password and with the default user name "postgres", non of the environment variables below seems to applied. below is the db service of my docker-compose.yml file: (version 3)

db:
  image: postgres
  container_name: postgres
  environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: user
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: pass
      POSTGRES_DB: db
  restart: unless-stopped
  volumes:
    - ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  ports:
    - "5432:5432"

Note I tried using the "-POSTGRES_USER=" as well, it didn't work

Also, I deleted all old containers/volumes.

Any idea?

Answer 1

The problem should be with the volume attached. When your container start it will add the credentials you give him, but then the volume will be attached and that will cause this information being rewritten.

For more information have a look at https://github.com/docker-library/postgres/issues/203#issuecomment-255200501.

Answer 2

The main reason being use of ':' instead of "=" in the environment section. Ideally it should look like this:

db:
  image: postgres
  container_name: postgres
  environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=user
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD= pass
      - POSTGRES_DB= db
  restart: unless-stopped
  volumes:
    - ./postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  ports:
    - "5432:5432"

Although very late to this but I hope this helps someone who comes looking for a similar solution.