Dotenv: How can I handle dev and testing environment on a single machine?

[christopher-francisco]

I want to start by saying "thanks" to the contributors as I think this library is great.

Now, my question is different from #220.

I'm starting on a dummy project, and I want to add some integration testing using https://github.com/visionmedia/supertest. I will definitely need to load different env variables for the development env, which I access through the browser; and the test env, which mocha runs. Different mongodb urls, Etc.

I'm not talking about committing production/qa envs, but local envs for different environments (I think this are also called "flavors"?)

What approach could I take here?

Also, if this thread becomes useful and informative, I'd like to request for it to be put in the FAQ README section, as I think many people could benefit from it.

Thanks in advance

[maxbeatty]

Solving for this is really up to personal preference.

You could accomplish it via the file system by symlinking files.

ln -s .env.dev .env
rm .env
ln -s .env.test .env

You could conditionally load files based on an _environment variable_.

const dotenv = require("dotenv")

const envFile = process.env.NODE_ENV ? `.env.${process.env.NODE_END}` : '.env'
dotenv.config({ path: envFile })

[christopher-francisco]

@maxbeatty This is similar to the approach I had thought before I read your recommendation of not having multiple .env files.

[pennyandsean]

IMHO the library should do it.

[gsanikidze]

In config folder I have two files prod.env and dev.env. I am Starting node with the command ENVIRONMENT=dev node index.js or ENVIRONMENT=prod node index.js. Below is implementation.

---

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import path from 'path';

dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(__dirname, ../config/${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}.env)});

[hajimurtaza]

In config folder I have two files prod.env and dev.env. I am Starting node with the command ENVIRONMENT=dev node index.js or ENVIRONMENT=prod node index.js. Below is implementation.

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import path from 'path';

dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(__dirname, ../config/${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}.env)});

For people working with Javascript , replace ${variableName} with +variableName followed by 'string'

[AdamZaczek]

In config folder I have two files prod.env and dev.env. I am Starting node with the command ENVIRONMENT=dev node index.js or ENVIRONMENT=prod node index.js. Below is implementation.

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import path from 'path';

dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(__dirname, ../config/${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}.env)});

The best solution, love it

[jasonkarns]

For people working with Javascript , replace ${variableName} with +variableName followed by 'string'

@hajimurtaza that is javascript, but the blockquote formatting is making the backticks render as code instead of leaving them as literals. It should read as:

dotenv.config({ path: path.resolve(__dirname, `../config/${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}.env`)});

The backticks are template literals.

[FireWall-e]

Solutions above didn't work for me. I am using Windows 10. Ended up with creating cli argument parse method, that i gets invoked in the main file (index.js or whatever you like). This solution is universal. I would like to share with you, guys, in case someone has the similar problem. _CommonJS module syntax is used_

File: parse-cli.js
Description: returns flag value based on the flag name (--[flagName]=[flagValue]), undefined otherwise. It should have at least single dash at the beginning.

exports.parseCliFlagValue = (flagName) => {
    const flag = process.argv.find(argument => argument.indexOf(`-${flagName}=`) > -1);

    if (flag) {
        return flag.slice(flag.indexOf('=') + 1);
    }

    return undefined;
};

File: index.js (or whatever your main js file is)
Description: includes dotenv config dynamically based on a cli argument passed

const {parseCliFlagValue} = require('./utils/parse-cli-flags');
const environment = parseCliFlagValue('env');

require('dotenv').config({path: `src/environments/.env.${environment}`}); // amend the last part in case you have another config name format

Now you can call any of these:
nodemon src/server.js --env=dev // will include dev dotenv config. chiefly used in development mode
or
node src/server.js --env=prod // for production mode