Variables Layering Support

Intro: Common Layers

Variables support layering for the configs/demo/variables folder. Variables files are layered if they exist. Let’s say you have the following variables directory structure:

configs/demo/variables
├── base.rb
├── development.rb
└── production.rb

• base.rb is always evaluated.
• development.rb or production.rb is evaluated based on LONO_ENV.

In this case, you want to define your common variables used for templates in the base.rb. Specific environment overrides can be defined in their respective LONO_ENV variables file. For example, let’s say we’re setting the min and max size of an autoscaling group. We could have something like this:

configs/demo/variables/base.rb:

@min_size = 1
@max_size = 1

configs/demo/variables/production.rb:

@min_size = 10
@max_size = 20

Lono will use the @max_size = 20 variableeter value when launching the stack with LONO_ENV=production. Lono will use @max_size = 1 for all other LONO_ENV values. Example:

$ lono cfn deploy demo # @max_size = 1
$ LONO_ENV=production lono cfn deploy demo # @max_size = 20

Remember variables can be used to affect templates at compile-time. Here’s the lifecycle flow to see when the compile phase happens.

Depending on how you use variables with layering, you can dramatically simpify your code.

Full Layering: Conventional Requested

Additionally, layering also considers variables files that match the stack name. Here is a list of the full layering possibilities.

The BLUEPRINT, LONO_ENV, and TEMPLATE placeholders are self-explanatory. REQUESTED requires a little more explanation. REQUESTED is usually the requested stack name. Here’s a concrete example with stack name:

lono cfn deploy my-stack --blueprint demo # REQUESTED=my-stack

The layers would be:

1. configs/demo/variables/base.rb
2. configs/demo/variables/development.rb
3. configs/demo/variables/my-stack.rb
4. configs/demo/variables/development/my-stack.rb (recommended)

If you need to use a different variable file that does not match the stack name, you can explicitly specify the variable file with the --variable option. Here’s an example with the --variable option. Here REQUESTED comes from --variable my-variable:

lono cfn deploy my-stack --blueprint demo --variable my-variable # REQUESTED=my-variable

These variables files are layered on top of the “Common” base.rb and development.rb layers.

1. configs/demo/variables/base.rb
2. configs/demo/variables/development.rb
3. configs/demo/variables/my-variable.rb
4. configs/demo/variables/development/my-variable.rb (recommended)

Direct Locations

You can also specify relative and full paths for the --variable value. Example:

lono cfn deploy my-stack --blueprint demo --variable configs/demo/variables/my-variable.rb

You can specify variables files that exist outside of the lono project too.

lono cfn deploy my-stack --blueprint demo --variable /tmp/my-variable.rb

Relative and full paths generally remove the “Conventional” lookups for the layers. So you’ll end up with this:

1. configs/demo/variables/base.rb
2. configs/demo/variables/development.rb
3. /tmp/my-variable.rb

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