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[BUG] exec attempts to validate env_file for a different non-dependent service #13601
Description
Description
Given two services foo and bar where foo defines an env_file entry as a non-existent file. Running docker compose exec bar ... fails due to "env file not found".
This is inconsistent with e.g. docker compose up bar which runs successfully without attempting to validate the env_file of service foo
Steps To Reproduce
# compose.yaml
services:
foo:
image: hello-world
env_file:
- /does/not/exist/.env
bar:
image: hello-world
run:
docker compose exec bar bash
result:
env file /does/not/exist/.env not found: stat /does/not/exist/.env: no such file or directory
Compose Version
v5.0.2
Docker Environment
Anything else?
No response
Activity
[-][BUG] docker compose exec <service> <command> attempts to validate env_file for a different non-dependent service[/-][+][BUG] docker compose exec attempts to validate env_file for a different non-dependent service[/+][-][BUG] docker compose exec attempts to validate env_file for a different non-dependent service[/-][+][BUG] exec attempts to validate env_file for a different non-dependent service[/+]maxproske commentedon Feb 21, 2026
This is a gap from #13156 where I fixed ps/logs/down but missed exec and some other commands. PR incoming.
github-actions commentedon Jul 26, 2026
This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.
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