Accessing the process / environment from a grunt template

Question

I have some code in a grunt.js file which is working with 0.3 but breaks on 0.4:

{
    dest: '<%= process.env.DEST %>/index.html'
}

In 0.3 process is defined and so I can access variables defined in the environment inside the template when I am e.g. passing file paths to other plugins.

Is there an alternative approach to this which will work in 0.4? Or a way to put a breakpoint in while the template is rendering so that I can see what variables are available?

score 54 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 10 '15 at 10:09

54

The default data is the config object. You can add the environment variable to the config object or just use it directly.

grunt.initConfig({
    destination: process.env.DEST,
    task: {
        target: {
            dest: '<%= destination %>/index.html'
        }
    },
});

or

grunt.initConfig({
    task: {
        target: {
            dest: process.env.DEST + '/index.html'
        }
    },
});

edited Jun 10 '15 at 10:09

Sanghyun Lee

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answered Dec 30 '12 at 07:31

Sindre Sorhus

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Thanks for the very clear answer - that's demystified something that had me confused! – vitch Jan 02 '13 at 14:05
3

Note that the documentation @SindreSorhus mentions has moved to http://gruntjs.com/api/grunt.config. – Ludder Nov 22 '13 at 14:49

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 10 '17 at 11:39

That's a great straight forward answer by Sindre. Alternatively you can do (use the grunt-env plugin: https://npmjs.org/package/grunt-env )-

grunt.initConfig({
    env : {
        test : {
            DEST : 'testDEST'
        },
        dev : {
            DEST : 'devDEST'
        },
        qa : {
            DEST : 'qaDEST'
        },
        prod : {
            DEST : 'prodDEST'
        }
    }

});


grunt.registerTask('setenvs', 'Set environment variables', function() {
    grunt.config('ENVS', process.env);
});

and then use

{
    dest: '<%= ENVS.DEST %>/index.html'
}

Your task would be -

    grunt.registerTask('default', [
        'env:dev',
        'setenvs'
        'yourTask'
    ]);

Proposed alternative approach just so that you can use <%= ... %> and you don't have to hardcode it in initConfig. Target for env you can take as input from user and pass it to env.

Is is possible to load environment variables from files with grunt-env, right? how can you access them? I'm currently failing to do that. I would like to access a .env file that I'm already using with webpack. Is it possible? Thx! — DraQ, Mar 30 '20 at 20:15

Accessing the process / environment from a grunt template

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