Read dotenv from bash script

Question

I have a bash file setting up a postgres-database.

#configure_db.sh
source ./secrets/sqlpassword.sh
createdb -U myuser mydatabase

I have a simple bash file exporting the password

#secrets/sqlpassword.sh
export PGPASSWORD='mypassword'

The rest of the node server uses environment variables saved in a .env-file. For the sake of order and simplicity i would want my postgres password stored in the same file:

//.env
postgrespassword='mypassword'

How can you import a variable from a .env-file to as bash-file?

Is there another way of solving the above?

Short of writing your own parser for the format you want to read, no. — tripleee, Feb 06 '22 at 09:12
Googling this problem immediately gets me a number of hits, including https://github.com/bashup/dotenv — tripleee, Feb 06 '22 at 09:15
Is the only thing you're missing the `export`? If so, we already have Q&A covering the topic. (Hint: `set -a` is your friend). — Charles Duffy, Feb 06 '22 at 17:24

Tolis Gerodimos · Answer 1 · 2022-02-06T17:17:10.500

1

Why don't you follow the same pattern?

Change

#configure_db.sh
source ./secrets/sqlpassword.sh
createdb -U myuser mydatabase

to

#configure_db.sh
PGPASSWORD=$(grep postgrespassword /path/to/.env | cut -d "=" -f2)
createdb -U myuser mydatabase

edited Feb 06 '22 at 17:17

answered Feb 06 '22 at 09:51

Tolis Gerodimos

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First thing the variable has to be named PGPASSWORD, as that is the environment variable that postgres will use. However, even with a correct name, when sourcing .env the variables aren't just read and exported. As commented by tripleee you probably need some kind of parser. – Simon Feb 06 '22 at 14:26
Excuse me i missunderstood. Maybe this is what you need? – Tolis Gerodimos Feb 06 '22 at 17:17

Read dotenv from bash script

1 Answers1