<p>Suppose that I have a <strong>Deployment</strong> which loads the env variables from a <strong>ConfigMap</strong>:</p>
<pre><code>spec.template.spec.containers[].envFrom.configMapRef
</code></pre>
<p>Now suppose that I change the data inside the ConfigMap.</p>
<p><strong>When exactly are the Pod env variables updated?</strong> (i.e. when the app running in a pod sees the new env variables)</p>
<p>For example (note that we are inside a Deployment):</p>
<ol>
<li>If a container inside the pod crashes and it is restarted does it read the new env or the old env?</li>
<li>If a pod is deleted (but not its RelicaSet) and it is recreated does it read the new env or the old env?</li>
</ol>

collimarco
<p>After some testing (with v1.20) I see that env variables in Pod template are updated immediately (it's just a reference to external values).</p>
<p>However the container does not see the new env variables... You need at least to restart it (or otherwise delete and recreate the pod).</p>
