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loadenv

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Utility for loading environment variables from a project's configs/ directory.

How it works

The module first finds your application's root directory and then attempts to load environment variables found in the configs/.env file. Then, if a specific NODE_ENV exists in the environment at run time it additionally loads variables from the configs/.env.${NODE_ENV} file. Note: This module will not work if installed globally npm install loadenv -g.

An Example

Suppose you have your project setup with the following configs:

configs/.env
  A=1
  B=2
configs/.env.test
  B=3
  C=4

If you launched your application without a NODE_ENV variable set, and called into the module like so:

require('loadenv')();

then the resulting process.env would now contain the following:

process.env.A === 1
process.env.B === 2

If instead, you launched your application with NODE_ENV=test then the process.env would include the following:

process.env.A === 1
process.env.B === 3
process.env.C === 4

Logging the Resulting Environment

The module uses debug to log the resulting environment after it has been loaded from the configs/ files. By default it uses debug('loadenv') but you can override this by calling into the module with a custom name, like so:

// Pass an options object:
require('loadenv')({
  debugName: 'myapp:env'
});

// Or just use a string if you only need the debug name
require('loadenv')('myapp:env') ;

If you were to do so then the module would use debug('myapp:env') to log the resulting output.

Only Loads Environment Once

No matter how many times you include the module, the environment is only loaded once. So feel free to sprinkle loads wherever they might be needed to make your code as modular as possible.