diff --git a/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/new_feature.md b/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/new_feature.md
index 74abae94c94dc0768bb5c51fe51ad253fce113fe..491b7f98ded7e0da03d18c95978eafcb7d86619f 100644
--- a/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/new_feature.md
+++ b/.gitlab/merge_request_templates/new_feature.md
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@ Closes #999
 ## Checklist
 
 * General:
-    * [ ] use [rules](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#rules) instead of [only/except](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/#onlyexcept-advanced)
-    * [ ] optimized [cache](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/caching/) configuration (wherever applicable)
+    * [ ] use [rules](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#rules) instead of [only/except](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#onlyexcept-advanced)
+    * [ ] optimized [cache](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/caching/) configuration (wherever applicable)
 * Publicly usable:
     * [ ] untagged runners
     * [ ] no proxy configuration but support `http_proxy`/`https_proxy`/`no_proxy`
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1b8dbe2400120e859d5402fd51da599685c0c45e..ab205310773bfe2e3f400ade79846bad747eec34 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,4 +1,18 @@
-# [1.2.0](https://git.code.tecnalia.dev/smartdatalab/public/ci-cd-components/docker-compose/compare/1.1.0...1.2.0) (2025-01-29)
+## [1.2.2](https://gitlab.com/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/compare/1.2.1...1.2.2) (2025-04-11)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* **envsubst:** leave lines with '# nosubst' unchanged when substituting (used to be simply dropped) ([392e60d](https://gitlab.com/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/commit/392e60d69d47130f7f1a249ef8001c1fe6b234d0))
+
+## [1.2.1](https://gitlab.com/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/compare/1.2.0...1.2.1) (2025-02-01)
+
+
+### Bug Fixes
+
+* homogenize new TBC envsubst mechanism ([63bca5c](https://gitlab.com/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/commit/63bca5c391b44614a0e34edcc4dcdc82f55e6c4d))
+
+# [1.2.0](https://gitlab.com/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/compare/1.1.0...1.2.0) (2025-01-27)
 
 
 ### Features
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 7414195e1bf2f16feb4762b1844a68016511d0eb..3d4325b1b3db820a5425a473df7a7a55d3c37128 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ To contribute:
 
 1. Create an issue describing the bug or enhancement you want to propose (select the right issue template).
 2. Make sure the issue has been reviewed and agreed.
-3. Create a Merge Request, from your **own** fork (see [forking workflow](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/repository/forking_workflow.html) documentation).
+3. Create a Merge Request, from your **own** fork (see [forking workflow](https://docs.gitlab.com/user/project/repository/forking_workflow/) documentation).
    Don't hesitate to mark your MR as `Draft` as long as you think it's not ready to be reviewed.
 
 ### Git Commit Conventions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d9a511359d6ad0cd6fc8e3fb19259444ada3b8f8..b162bad45c3162897bd10f1f90b56d716802944d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,8 +4,8 @@ This project implements a GitLab CI/CD template to deploy your application with
 
 ## Usage
 
-This template can be used both as a [CI/CD component](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/components/#use-a-component) 
-or using the legacy [`include:project`](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/index.html#includeproject) syntax.
+This template can be used both as a [CI/CD component](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/components/#use-a-component) 
+or using the legacy [`include:project`](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/#includeproject) syntax.
 
 ### Use as a CI/CD component
 
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Add the following to your `.gitlab-ci.yml`:
 ```yaml
 include:
   # 1: include the component
-  - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/gitlab-ci-docker-compose@1.2.0
+  - component: $CI_SERVER_FQDN/to-be-continuous/docker-compose/gitlab-ci-docker-compose@1.2.2
     # 2: set/override component inputs
     inputs:
       # ⚠ this is only an example
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Add the following to your `.gitlab-ci.yml`:
 include:
   # 1: include the template
   - project: 'to-be-continuous/docker-compose'
-    ref: '1.2.0'
+    ref: '1.2.2'
     file: '/templates/gitlab-ci-docker-compose.yml'
 
 variables:
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ _ongoing developments_ (a.k.a. _feature_ or _topic_ branches).
 When enabled, it deploys the result from upstream build stages to a dedicated and temporary environment.
 It is only active for non-production, non-integration branches.
 
-It is a strict equivalent of GitLab's [Review Apps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/review_apps/) feature.
+It is a strict equivalent of GitLab's [Review Apps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/review_apps/) feature.
 
 It also comes with a _cleanup_ job (accessible either from the _environments_ page, or from the pipeline view).
 
@@ -244,8 +244,8 @@ Part of this complexity can be handled by the lookup strategies described above
    * `${environment_type}`: the current environment type (`review`, `integration`, `staging` or `production`)
    * `${environment_name}`: the application name to use for the current environment (ex: `myproject-review-fix-bug-12` or `myproject-staging`)
    * `${hostname}`: the environment hostname, extracted from the current environment url (after late variable expansion - see below)
-2. any [GitLab CI variable](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/predefined_variables.html)
-3. any [custom variable](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-docker-host)
+2. any [GitLab CI variable](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/predefined_variables/)
+3. any [custom variable](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-docker-host)
    (ex: `${SECRET_TOKEN}` that you have set in your project CI/CD variables)
 
 Be aware that environment variables may be freely used and substituted in [dotenv files](https://docs.docker.com/compose/environment-variables/env-file/) 
@@ -256,7 +256,7 @@ using the appropriate [interpolation syntax](https://docs.docker.com/compose/env
 The Docker Compose template supports two ways of providing your environments url:
 
 * a **static way**: when the environments url can be determined in advance, probably because you're exposing your routes through a DNS you manage,
-* a [**dynamic way**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/environments/#set-a-dynamic-environment-url): when the url cannot be known before the
+* a [**dynamic way**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/environments/#set-a-dynamic-environment-url): when the url cannot be known before the
   deployment job is executed.
 
 The **static way** can be implemented simply by setting the appropriate configuration variable(s) depending on the environment (see environments configuration chapters):
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ the dynamically generated url. When detected by the template, it will use it as
 
 ### Deployment output variables
 
-Each deployment job produces _output variables_ that are propagated to downstream jobs (using [dotenv artifacts](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/artifacts_reports.html#artifactsreportsdotenv)):
+Each deployment job produces _output variables_ that are propagated to downstream jobs (using [dotenv artifacts](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/yaml/artifacts_reports/#artifactsreportsdotenv)):
 
 * `$environment_type`: set to the type of environment (`review`, `integration`, `staging` or `production`),
 * `$environment_name`: the application name (see below),
@@ -301,12 +301,12 @@ You may also add and propagate your own custom variables, by pushing them to the
 
 Here are some advices about your **secrets** (variables marked with a :lock:): 
 
-1. Manage them as [project or group CI/CD variables](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-docker-host):
-    * [**masked**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#mask-a-cicd-variable) to prevent them from being inadvertently 
+1. Manage them as [project or group CI/CD variables](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/#add-a-cicd-variable-to-a-docker-host):
+    * [**masked**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/#mask-a-cicd-variable) to prevent them from being inadvertently 
       displayed in your job logs,
-    * [**protected**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#protected-cicd-variables) if you want to secure some secrets 
+    * [**protected**](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/#protected-cicd-variables) if you want to secure some secrets 
       you don't want everyone in the project to have access to (for instance production secrets).
-2. In case a secret contains [characters that prevent it from being masked](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/#mask-a-cicd-variable), 
+2. In case a secret contains [characters that prevent it from being masked](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/#mask-a-cicd-variable), 
   simply define its value as the [Base64](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64) encoded value prefixed with `@b64@`: 
   it will then be possible to mask it and the template will automatically decode it prior to using it.
 3. Don't forget to escape special characters (ex: `$` -> `$$`).
@@ -317,9 +317,9 @@ The Docker Compose template uses some global configuration used throughout all j
 
 | Input / Variable         | Description                                                                                                                                                                         | Default value     |
 | ------------------------ |-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| ----------------- |
-| `image` / `DCMP_IMAGE` | The Docker image used to run Docker Compose CLI commands                                                                                                                            | `registry.hub.docker.com/library/docker:latest` |
+| `image` / `DCMP_IMAGE` | The Docker image used to run Docker Compose CLI commands                                                                                                                            | `registry.hub.docker.com/library/docker:latest` <br/>[![Trivy Badge](https://to-be-continuous.gitlab.io/doc/secu/trivy-badge-DCMP_IMAGE.svg)](https://to-be-continuous.gitlab.io/doc/secu/trivy-DCMP_IMAGE) |
 | `cmd` / `DCMP_CMD`     | The docker compose or stack command (`docker compose`, `docker-compose` or `docker stack`)                                                                                          | _none_ (auto) |
-| `base-app-name` / `DCMP_BASE_APP_NAME`| Base application name                                                                                                                                                               | `$CI_PROJECT_NAME` ([see GitLab doc](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/variables/predefined_variables.html)) |
+| `base-app-name` / `DCMP_BASE_APP_NAME`| Base application name                                                                                                                                                               | `$CI_PROJECT_NAME` ([see GitLab doc](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/variables/predefined_variables/)) |
 | `environment-url` / `DCMP_ENVIRONMENT_URL`| Default environments url _(only define for static environment URLs declaration)_<br/>_supports late variable expansion (ex: `https://%{environment_name}.docker-compose.acme.com`)_ | _none_ |
 | `scripts-dir` / `DCMP_SCRIPTS_DIR`| Directory where Compose files, dotenv files and hook scripts are located                                                                                                            | `.` _(root project dir)_ |
 | `up-opts` / `DCMP_UP_OPTS` | [`compose up` options](https://docs.docker.com/reference/cli/docker/compose/up/#options) (only when using Docker Compose)                                                           | `--no-build --remove-orphans --wait --wait-timeout 180` |
diff --git a/kicker.json b/kicker.json
index f0cfa1827451487272fdcc1a6b60a071e5f2bc48..88d9ac9f55bcb5cb89b7f30f72a7b3896d4b97b8 100644
--- a/kicker.json
+++ b/kicker.json
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
     {
       "id": "review",
       "name": "Review",
-      "description": "Dynamic review environments for your topic branches (see GitLab [Review Apps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/review_apps/))",
+      "description": "Dynamic review environments for your topic branches (see GitLab [Review Apps](https://docs.gitlab.com/ci/review_apps/))",
       "variables": [
         {
           "name": "DCMP_REVIEW_DOCKER_HOST",
diff --git a/templates/gitlab-ci-docker-compose.yml b/templates/gitlab-ci-docker-compose.yml
index e0c1ec0c14a53c6c5dd98f44e22810955bd829df..1f955ba0d82795ade51191c6c2bf23e54721cb24 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab-ci-docker-compose.yml
+++ b/templates/gitlab-ci-docker-compose.yml
@@ -464,9 +464,82 @@ stages:
     echo "$1" | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' | tr '[:punct:]' '_'
   }
 
-  function awkenvsubst() {
-    # escapes '&' char in variables for gsub
-    awk '{while(match($0,"[$%]{[^}]*}")) {var=substr($0,RSTART+2,RLENGTH-3);val=ENVIRON[var];gsub("&","\\\\&",val);gsub("[$%]{"var"}",val)}}1'
+  function tbc_envsubst() {
+    awk '
+      BEGIN {
+        count_replaced_lines = 0
+        # ASCII codes
+        for (i=0; i<=255; i++)
+          char2code[sprintf("%c", i)] = i
+      }
+      # determine encoding (from env or from file extension)
+      function encoding() {
+        enc = ENVIRON["TBC_ENVSUBST_ENCODING"]
+        if (enc != "")
+          return enc
+        if (match(FILENAME, /\.(json|yaml|yml)$/))
+          return "jsonstr"
+        return "raw"
+      }
+      # see: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/encodeURIComponent
+      function uriencode(str) {
+        len = length(str)
+        enc = ""
+        for (i=1; i<=len; i++) {
+          c = substr(str, i, 1);
+          if (index("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789-_.!~*'\''()", c))
+            enc = enc c
+          else
+            enc = enc "%" sprintf("%02X", char2code[c])
+        }
+        return enc
+      }
+      /# *nosubst/ {
+        print $0
+        next
+      }
+      {
+        orig_line = $0
+        line = $0
+        count_repl_in_line = 0
+        # /!\ 3rd arg (match) not supported in BusyBox awk
+        while (match(line, /[$%]\{([[:alnum:]_]+)\}/)) {
+          expr_start = RSTART
+          expr_len = RLENGTH
+          # get var name
+          var = substr(line, expr_start+2, expr_len-3)
+          # get var value (from env)
+          val = ENVIRON[var]
+          # check variable is set
+          if (val == "") {
+            printf("[\033[1;93mWARN\033[0m] Environment variable \033[33;1m%s\033[0m is not set or empty\n", var) > "/dev/stderr"
+          } else {
+            enc = encoding()
+            if (enc == "jsonstr") {
+              gsub(/["\\]/, "\\\\&", val)
+              gsub("\n", "\\n", val)
+              gsub("\r", "\\r", val)
+              gsub("\t", "\\t", val)
+            } else if (enc == "uricomp") {
+              val = uriencode(val)
+            } else if (enc == "raw") {
+            } else {
+              printf("[\033[1;93mWARN\033[0m] Unsupported encoding \033[33;1m%s\033[0m: ignored\n", enc) > "/dev/stderr"
+            }
+          }
+          # replace expression in line
+          line = substr(line, 1, expr_start - 1) val substr(line, expr_start + expr_len)
+          count_repl_in_line++
+        }
+        if (count_repl_in_line) {
+          if (count_replaced_lines == 0)
+            printf("[\033[1;94mINFO\033[0m] Variable expansion occurred in file \033[33;1m%s\033[0m:\n", FILENAME) > "/dev/stderr"
+          count_replaced_lines++
+          printf("> line %s: %s\n", NR, orig_line) > "/dev/stderr"
+        }
+        print line
+      }
+    ' "$@"
   }
 
   function configure_network() {
@@ -474,7 +547,7 @@ stages:
     if [[ -f ".netrc" ]]
     then
       log_info "--- \\e[32m.netrc\\e[0m file found: envsubst and install"
-      awkenvsubst < .netrc > ~/.netrc
+      tbc_envsubst .netrc > ~/.netrc
       chmod 0600 ~/.netrc
     fi
 
@@ -533,7 +606,7 @@ stages:
       # special variable supported
       TBC_CI_REGISTRY_TOKEN=$(echo -n "$CI_REGISTRY_USER:$CI_REGISTRY_PASSWORD" | base64 | tr -d '\n')
       export TBC_CI_REGISTRY_TOKEN 
-      awkenvsubst < .docker/config.json > ~/.docker/config.json
+      tbc_envsubst .docker/config.json > ~/.docker/config.json
     else
       log_info "--- \\e[32m.docker/config.json\\e[0m file not found: looking for TBC built images..."
       _image_vars=$(env | awk -F '=' "/^[A-Z]+_(SNAPSHOT|RELEASE)_IMAGE=/ {print \$1}" | sort | uniq)
@@ -688,7 +761,7 @@ stages:
   function compose_up() {
     environment_url=${ENV_URL:-$DCMP_ENVIRONMENT_URL}
     # variables expansion in $environment_url
-    environment_url=$(echo "$environment_url" | awkenvsubst)
+    environment_url=$(echo "$environment_url" | TBC_ENVSUBST_ENCODING=uricomp tbc_envsubst)
     export environment_url
     # extract hostname from $environment_url
     hostname=$(echo "$environment_url" | awk -F[/:] '{print $4}')
@@ -801,7 +874,7 @@ stages:
   image: $DCMP_IMAGE
   services:
     - name: "$TBC_TRACKING_IMAGE"
-      command: ["--service", "docker-compose", "1.2.0"]
+      command: ["--service", "docker-compose", "1.2.2"]
   before_script:
     - !reference [.compose-scripts]
     - install_ca_certs "${CUSTOM_CA_CERTS:-$DEFAULT_CA_CERTS}"