Dot-Export

Overview

Usage

Safely export environment variables from a file.

• Will not overwrite previously set variables in the current process unless the --overwrite or -o flag is passed.

• If an environemnt file cannot be located the script will check in the <DOT_EXPORT_PATH> directory.

  Usage: dot-export -f <FILE_1> -f <FILE_2> -f <FILE_3>...
         dot-export -p <DOT_EXPORT_PATH> -f <FILE>
         dot-export -o -p <DOT_EXPORT_PATH> -f <FILE>
  

Arguments

• -c, --command: Pass a command to run in the dot-export script (optional)
• -f, --file: The location of an environment file (required)
• -o, --overwrite: Overwrite previously exported environment variables (optional)
• -p, --path: The base path of the environment files that are passed as arguments (optional)

Under the hood

dot [.]

Execute commands from a file in the current environment. LINK

export [set -a]

When this option is on, the export attribute shall be set for each variable to which an assignment is performed. LINK

Basic example

set -a; . file.env; set +a;

Configuration

Environment variables

variables	default	description
DOT_EXPORT_PATH	./	The base path of the environment files that are passed as arguments.

Required variables file

These variables must be provided a value in the current process or an error will be thrown.

List the required variable names:

<DOT_EXPORT_PATH>/require.env

ENV_VAR

Default variables file

The values for these variables are baked into the application but can be easily overwritten.

List the variable key/value pairs:

<DOT_EXPORT_PATH>/default.env

ENV_VAR=HELLO_WORLD

Module variables file

You can export specific environment variables and make them available as an ES6 JavaScript module called module.env.js.

<DOT_EXPORT_PATH>/module.env.js

export default {"ENV_VAR": "HELLO_WORLD"}

Specify the module variables that should be exported:

<DOT_EXPORT_PATH>/module.env

ENV_VAR

Expected behavior

• Comments are ignored

• Empty lines are ignored

• Empty values become empty strings

  FOO= -> FOO=""
  

• Escaped characters are preserved when properly wrapped

  var="foo\sbar"
  var="{\'foo\':\'bar\'}"
  var='{\"foo\":\"bar\"}'
  

• Newlines are preserved when quoted

  var="multi
  line
  string?query=abc123"
  
  var='multi
  line
  string?query=abc123'
  

• Single-quotes and double-quotes are preserved when properly wrapped

  var='{"foo":"bar"}' -> var='{"foo":"bar"}'
  var="{'foo':'bar'}" -> var="{'foo':'bar'}"
  

• Whitespace is trimmed from unquoted values

  var=  foobar   -> var=foobar
  

• Unescaped nested quotes are removed

  var='{'foo':'bar'}' -> var={foo:bar}
  var="{"foo":"bar"}" -> var={foo:bar}
  

• The output from command substitution will become the assigned value

  var="$(echo 'foobar')" -> var="foobar"
  

Contributing

The contributing guidelines can be found here.

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