How to set process.env from the file in NodeJS?

Question

I'm new to the Node.JS. I found few articles says we can use .env file to setup the process.env variable, e.g.,

PORT = 8081

but when I run the program in my node, it is still 8080 PORT (by default). The question is how can I setup the env variable in Node without any other 3rd party module's help? (I found there are few 3rd party package to management the env config, but... it is kind confused, different package might have different rule and more complex use cases; I want to start from clear way to study purely nodejs)

Update

I have read Node Environment Setting post on StackOverFlow, but they are refer using 3rd party package, none of them tells the detail steps. (Either windows system environment, or Linux environment variables... but how can I place the setting into my project folder?!)

You can ref here : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22312671/node-js-setting-environment-variables Hope help u! — anonystick, Feb 22 '17 at 07:29
Possible duplicate of [Node.js: Setting Environment Variables](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22312671/node-js-setting-environment-variables) — stdob--, Feb 22 '17 at 07:35
@TungNguyen I have read that article, but they are refer using 3rd party package, none of them tells the detail steps. (Either windows system environment, or Linux environment variables... but how can I place the setting into my project folder?!) — Weijing Lin, Feb 22 '17 at 07:35

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 22 '17 at 11:43

8

Dotenv file have become the most popular mode to separate configuratione from app, using system environment variables (see 12factor config).

On node there exists a lot of libraries for loading config from .env file. The most popular is motdotla/dotenv. You can read a lot of examples on readme file about the usage of this library

edited Feb 22 '17 at 11:43

Daniel Netto

387
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answered Feb 22 '17 at 08:19

Giorgio Cerruti

896
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very correct. `.env` is the best way for setting environment variable. See https://gist.github.com/Robophil/94c8577f34e46e7e0b09d218c7ae9bf2 all thanks to elliot – Phil Apr 20 '17 at 15:03

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 22 '17 at 07:59

4

Make a config.js file with the following content:

module.exports = {
    bar: 'someValue',
    foo: 'otherValue'
    ...
}

Then you can do this in some file:

const config = require('./config');
let foo = config.foo;

answered Feb 22 '17 at 07:59

jesusgn90

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My system has a process.env object (I don't know where is it from; that's the key problem). It is on c9.io machine. – Weijing Lin Feb 22 '17 at 08:02
2

process.env it's an alias to get the environment variables! – jesusgn90 Feb 22 '17 at 08:04

How to set process.env from the file in NodeJS?

2 Answers2

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