<p>Is there a way to pass a boolean value for spec.container.env.value  ?
I want to override, with helm, a boolean env variables in a docker parent image (<a href="https://github.com/APSL/docker-thumbor" rel="noreferrer">https://github.com/APSL/docker-thumbor</a>) : UPLOAD_ENABLED</p>

<p>I made a simpler test</p>

<p>If you try the following yaml : </p>

<pre><code>apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: envar-demo
  labels:
    purpose: demonstrate-envars
spec:
  containers:
  - name: envar-demo-container
    image: gcr.io/google-samples/node-hello:1.0
    env:
    - name: DEMO_GREETING
      value: true
</code></pre>

<p>And try to create it with kubernetes, you got the following error : </p>

<pre><code>kubectl create -f envars.yaml
</code></pre>

<p>the error : </p>

<pre><code>error: error validating "envars.yaml": error validating data: expected type string, for field spec.containers[0].env[0].value, got bool; if you choose to ignore these errors, turn validation off with --validate=false
</code></pre>

<p>with validate=false </p>

<pre><code>Error from server (BadRequest): error when creating "envars.yaml": Pod in version "v1" cannot be handled as a Pod: [pos 192]: json: expect char '"' but got char 't'
</code></pre>

<p>It doesn't work with integer values too</p>

<p><code>spec.container.env.value</code> is defined as <code>string</code>. see here:
<a href="https://kubernetes.io/docs/api-reference/v1.6/#envvar-v1-core" rel="noreferrer">https://kubernetes.io/docs/api-reference/v1.6/#envvar-v1-core</a></p>

<p>You'd have to cast/convert/coerse to boolean in your container when using this value</p>
