env-cmd

What is env-cmd?

The env-cmd npm package allows you to easily set environment variables from a file or inline before running a command. This is particularly useful for managing different environments (development, testing, production) without hardcoding environment variables in your code.

What are env-cmd's main functionalities?

Load environment variables from a file

This feature allows you to load environment variables from a specified file before running your command. The file should follow the standard .env format.

env-cmd -f ./path/to/.env node app.js

Load environment variables from multiple files

You can load environment variables from multiple files. This is useful for layering configurations, such as having a base configuration and an environment-specific override.

env-cmd -f ./path/to/.env -f ./path/to/.env.local node app.js

Inline environment variables

This feature allows you to set environment variables inline directly in the command. This is useful for quick tests or temporary overrides.

env-cmd -e 'NODE_ENV=production' node app.js

JSON configuration

You can also pass environment variables as a JSON object. This is useful for more complex configurations that might be easier to manage in JSON format.

env-cmd -e '{"NODE_ENV": "production", "API_KEY": "12345"}' node app.js

Other packages similar to env-cmd

dotenv

dotenv is a popular package for loading environment variables from a .env file into process.env. Unlike env-cmd, dotenv is typically used by requiring it in your code, rather than as a command-line tool.

cross-env

cross-env allows you to set environment variables across different platforms (Windows, Linux, macOS) in a consistent manner. It is similar to env-cmd but focuses more on cross-platform compatibility.

dotenv-cli

dotenv-cli is a command-line interface for dotenv, allowing you to load environment variables from a .env file before running a command, similar to env-cmd. It provides a simpler interface but lacks some of the advanced features of env-cmd.

README

env-cmd

A simple node program for executing commands using an environment from an env file.

Install

npm install env-cmd

Usage

Environment file ./test/.env

# This is a comment
ENV1=THANKS # Yay inline comments support
ENV2=FOR ALL
ENV3 THE FISH # This format is also accepted

# Surround value in double quotes when using a # symbol in the value
ENV4="ValueContains#Symbol"

# If using double quotes as part of the value, you must surround the value in double quotes
ENV5=""Value includes double quotes""

Package.json

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "env-cmd ./test/.env mocha -R spec"
  }
}

or

Terminal

./node_modules/.bin/env-cmd ./test/.env node index.js

or

.env-cmdrc file .env-cmdrc

{
  "development": {
    "ENV1": "Thanks",
    "ENV2": "For All"
  },
  "production": {
    "ENV1": "The Fish"
  }
}

./node_modules/.bin/env-cmd production node index.js

Environment File Formats

These are the currently accepted environment file formats. If any other formats are desired please create an issue.

• key=value
• key value
• Key/value pairs as JSON
• JavaScript file exporting an object
• .env-cmdrc file (as valid json) in execution directory

Why

Because sometimes its just too cumbersome passing lots of environment variables to scripts. Its usually just easier to have a file with all the vars in them, especially for development and testing.

Do not commit sensitive environment data to a public git repo!

Related Projects

cross-env - Cross platform setting of environment scripts

Special Thanks

Special thanks to cross-env for inspiration (use's the same cross-spawn lib underneath too).

Contributors

• Eric Lanehart
• Jon Scheiding

Contributing Guide

I welcome all pull requests. Please make sure you add appropriate test cases for any features added. Before opening a PR please make sure to run the following scripts:

• npm run lint checks for code errors and formats according to js-standard
• npm test make sure all tests pass
• npm run test-cover make sure the coverage has not decreased from current master

Changelog

4.0.0

• BREAKING: In order to use double quotes as part of the env value, you must now surround those double quotes with an additional set of quotes: So ENV1="value" -> ENV1=""value"" (this only applies to double quotes, single quotes continue to work as normal)
• Bug: Fixed bug in the comment stripper function that would remove env values that included a #. Now, in order to use a # in a env value, you have to surround that env value in double quotes: ENV="Some#Value".
• Bug: Fixed a major bug with the .env-cmdrc file that would not add system env vars back in after reading the .env-cmdrc file. This meant that system vars like PATH would not exist when running the command.