Add a feature to parse .env file by default

[ALegchilov]

What is the problem this feature will solve?

As of now current NodeJS requres to explicitly specify path to .env file whereas dotenv makes it by default. Users have to run scripts starting with node keyword to explicitly specify .env file path. Whereas npm or npx commands do not support --env-file flag to pass it to node. For users who wants to exclude useage of external dotenv it seems inconvenient.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

In order to get rid of dotenv library I propose to parse .env file if it exests in project root folder.

What alternatives have you considered?

Switching back to dotenv

[aduh95]

I propose to parse .env file if it exests in project root folder.

This would of course introduce a security issue bad enough that we will probably never have this behavior as default. However there might be other ways to solve the problem at hand.

Whereas npm or npx commands do not support --env-file flag to pass it to node.

Can you give a specific example where this is a problem, ideally in the form "expected behavior vs actual behavior".

[ALegchilov]

@aduh95
With dotenv I just call require('dotenv').config() to programmatically set environment variables from a .env file. I run a cli tool in such a way npx myclitool.
In current Node there is no way to do it from the code, the only way is cli --env-file argument. To set a variables using NodeJs I have to modify my script like that node node_modules/@dependency/cli/bin/myclitool.js --env-file=.env
To sum up: it would be enough to have Programmatic API as requested in feature implementation comment. Probably the issue should be renamed respectively.

[aduh95]

Note that you can also use the NODE_OPTIONS env variable (NODE_OPTIONS='--env-file=.env' npx myclitool). EDIT: that was wrong, sorry, I forgot --env-file is not allowed in NODE_OPTIONS

/cc @anonrig

[meyfa]

Please do not do this. We have projects that make use of an .env file for consumption by another application, not directly related to Node.js, but those projects use Node.js tooling. If Node.js started automatically parsing the .env which is not meant for it, suddenly it would be using variables that it previously didn't, which would break the current behavior in a few cases.

[anonrig]

I'll open a PR for adding a function similar to dotenv.config()

[ALegchilov]

Note that you can also use the NODE_OPTIONS env variable (NODE_OPTIONS='--env-file=.env' npx myclitool)

/cc @anonrig

Does not work, an error occurs:
node: --env-file= is not allowed in NODE_OPTIONS

[penx]

Note that you can also use the NODE_OPTIONS env variable (NODE_OPTIONS='--env-file=.env' npx myclitool)
/cc @anonrig

Does not work, an error occurs: node: --env-file= is not allowed in NODE_OPTIONS

Was there a solution loading environment variables from .env when running npx? I don't see a solution in the linked PR.

There is a related issue against npm/cli but it was closed:

• [ENHANCEMENT] Implement --env-file option in npm-run-script npm/cli#7069

[lucasdonato]

• --env-file option in npm-run-script [ENHANCEMENT] Implement --env-file option in npm-run-script npm/cli#7069

It would be amazing if it worked with npx