ARG or ENV, which one to use in this case?

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From Dockerfile reference:

  • The ARG instruction defines a variable that users can pass at build-time to the builder with the docker build command using the --build-arg <varname>=<value> flag.

  • The ENV instruction sets the environment variable <key> to the value <value>.
    The environment variables set using ENV will persist when a container is run from the resulting image.

So if you need build-time customization, ARG is your best choice.
If you need run-time customization (to run the same image with different settings), ENV is well-suited.

If I want to add let’s say 20 (a random number) of extensions or any other feature that can be enable|disable

Given the number of combinations involved, using ENV to set those features at runtime is best here.

But you can combine both by:

  • building an image with a specific ARG
  • using that ARG as an ENV

That is, with a Dockerfile including:

ARG var
ENV var=${var}

You can then either build an image with a specific var value at build-time (docker build --build-arg var=xxx), or run a container with a specific runtime value (docker run -e var=yyy)

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