rc
The non-configurable configuration loader for lazy people.
Usage
The only option is to pass rc the name of your app, and your default configuration.
var conf = require('rc')(appname, {
port: 2468,
views: {
engine: 'jade'
}
});
rc
will return your configuration options merged with the defaults you specify.
If you pass in a predefined defaults object, it will be mutated:
var conf = {};
require('rc')(appname, conf);
If rc
finds any config files for your app, the returned config object will have
a configs
array containing their paths:
var appCfg = require('rc')(appname, conf);
appCfg.configs[0]
appCfg.configs[1]
appCfg.config
Standards
Given your application name (appname
), rc will look in all the obvious places for configuration.
- command line arguments, parsed by minimist (e.g.
--foo baz
, also nested: --foo.bar=baz
) - environment variables prefixed with
${appname}_
- or use "__" to indicate nested properties
(e.g. appname_foo__bar__baz
=> foo.bar.baz
)
- if you passed an option
--config file
then from that file - a local
.${appname}rc
or the first found looking in ./ ../ ../../ ../../../
etc. $HOME/.${appname}rc
$HOME/.${appname}/config
$HOME/.config/${appname}
$HOME/.config/${appname}/config
/etc/${appname}rc
/etc/${appname}/config
- the defaults object you passed in.
All configuration sources that were found will be flattened into one object,
so that sources earlier in this list override later ones.
Configuration File Formats
Configuration files (e.g. .appnamerc
) may be in either json or ini format. No file extension (.json
or .ini
) should be used. The example configurations below are equivalent:
Formatted as ini
; You can include comments in `ini` format if you want.
dependsOn=0.10.0
; `rc` has built-in support for ini sections, see?
[commands]
www = ./commands/www
console = ./commands/repl
; You can even do nested sections
[generators.options]
engine = ejs
[generators.modules]
new = generate-new
engine = generate-backend
Formatted as json
{
"dependsOn": "0.10.0",
"commands": {
"www": "./commands/www",
"console": "./commands/repl"
},
"generators": {
"options": {
"engine": "ejs"
},
"modules": {
"new": "generate-new",
"backend": "generate-backend"
}
}
}
Comments are stripped from JSON config via strip-json-comments.
Since ini, and env variables do not have a standard for types, your application needs be prepared for strings.
Simple example demonstrating precedence
Assume you have an application like this (notice the hard-coded defaults passed to rc):
const conf = require('rc')('myapp', {
port: 12345,
mode: 'test'
});
console.log(JSON.stringify(conf, null, 2));
You also have a file config.json
, with these contents:
{
"port": 9000,
"foo": "from config json",
"something": "else"
}
And a file .myapprc
in the same folder, with these contents:
{
"port": "3001",
"foo": "bar"
}
Here is the expected output from various commands:
node .
{
"port": "3001",
"mode": "test",
"foo": "bar",
"_": [],
"configs": [
"/Users/stephen/repos/conftest/.myapprc"
],
"config": "/Users/stephen/repos/conftest/.myapprc"
}
Default mode
from hard-coded object is retained, but port is overridden by .myapprc
file (automatically found based on appname match), and foo
is added.
node . --foo baz
{
"port": "3001",
"mode": "test",
"foo": "baz",
"_": [],
"configs": [
"/Users/stephen/repos/conftest/.myapprc"
],
"config": "/Users/stephen/repos/conftest/.myapprc"
}
Same result as above but foo
is overridden because command-line arguments take precedence over .myapprc
file.
node . --foo barbar --config config.json
{
"port": 9000,
"mode": "test",
"foo": "barbar",
"something": "else",
"_": [],
"config": "config.json",
"configs": [
"/Users/stephen/repos/conftest/.myapprc",
"config.json"
]
}
Now the port
comes from the config.json
file specified (overriding the value from .myapprc
), and foo
value is overriden by command-line despite also being specified in the config.json
file.
Advanced Usage
Pass in your own argv
You may pass in your own argv
as the third argument to rc
. This is in case you want to use your own command-line opts parser.
require('rc')(appname, defaults, customArgvParser);
Pass in your own parser
If you have a special need to use a non-standard parser,
you can do so by passing in the parser as the 4th argument.
(leave the 3rd as null to get the default args parser)
require('rc')(appname, defaults, null, parser);
This may also be used to force a more strict format,
such as strict, valid JSON only.
Note on Performance
rc
is running fs.statSync
-- so make sure you don't use it in a hot code path (e.g. a request handler)
License
Multi-licensed under the two-clause BSD License, MIT License, or Apache License, version 2.0