Local dev vs Defang (Prod) Configurations

[raphaeltm]

We need to document the best way to run different configurations in development and production. Even things like environment variables etc. Sometimes you want to add a NODE_ENV=development in dev andNODE_ENV=production in prod. We can tell people to do something like:

defang compose up -f compose.yml -f compose.defang.yml

But that's pretty annoying.

I think it would be nice if the defang CLI looked for a *compose.defang.y*ml file by default, and if it exists, use it to override values in the main compose file.

It's not a full development workflow, but I think it's a decent starting point.

[lionello]

We added support for Compose "profile" and always have profile=defang set.

[lionello]

compose.defang.yml looks a lot like the compose.override.yml which Docker always loads automatically.

[jordanstephens]

While discussing this in the office today, @lionello pointed out that local vs remote is not the same as development vs production. We want to be able to manage our configuration on all of these different axes.

I think multiple compose files are going to be necessary. Some of our samples are starting to use a pattern where the sort of remote production configuration is described in the default compose.yaml file, and a local development configuration is described in a compose.dev.yaml file which extends the default configuration, making overrides as necessary. I think this is a nice pattern as it keeps things simple for the fast demo case of writing a compose file and shipping it, but it leaves open additional space for further configuration as needs get more complex.

@raphaeltm pointed out https://github.com/DefangLabs/defang-mvp/issues/435 which describes introducing a defang dev command. I like the idea of introducing a defang local command (and maybe one day we could introduce defang remote to do development on a remote deployment). Maybe we should also have a compose.local.yaml file instead of compose.dev.yaml to stay consistent. We could use defang local to shell out to docker with something like docker compose -f compose.local.yaml, and it could even create one if it doesn't exist.

[Prakash-Sundaresan]

See also DefangLabs/defang-docs#57