# Docker compose and kong.conf **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** kong-gateway\ **Created:** [December 1, 2021, 1:15pm UTC](https://discuss.konghq.com/t/docker-compose-and-kong-conf/9428 "2021-12-01T13:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ritika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/67e7ee/32.png) [@ritika](https://discuss.konghq.com/u/ritika)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2021, 1:15pm UTC](https://discuss.konghq.com/t/docker-compose-and-kong-conf/9428/1 "2021-12-01T13:15:03Z")
Hello, I’m using docker compose file for setting up kong and postgres services. Since by default `kong.conf.default` is packed in the kong container, should I make a copy of kong.conf file like we do in normal installation without docker? I also want to know that after setting up the environment variables for both of them, do I need to update the database variables in `kong.conf` file too? Best regards, Ritika ---
**Author:** ![joedas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@joedas](https://discuss.konghq.com/u/joedas)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2021, 4:13pm UTC](https://discuss.konghq.com/t/docker-compose-and-kong-conf/9428/2 "2021-12-02T16:13:02Z")
Hi Ritika, The environment variables are used to override the kong.conf. [Configuration Reference for Kong Gateway - v2.6.x | Kong Docs](https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/2.6.x/reference/configuration/#environment-variables) ---
**Author:** ![ritika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/67e7ee/32.png) [@ritika](https://discuss.konghq.com/u/ritika)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2021, 7:53am UTC](https://discuss.konghq.com/t/docker-compose-and-kong-conf/9428/3 "2021-12-03T07:53:20Z")
Hi, Thanks for your reply @joedas. So when we want to enable a third party plugin for example, we generally uncomment the plugin part in `kong.conf` file and add the name of the plugin there, how to handle this in case of docker compose file? Best regards, Ritika