How to copy text to local .env file with bash

Question

Is there a way in a shell script to copy text into a local .env file so that I can automate setting those environment variables?

example, I want to copy this to an .env file that sits in the same directory I'm already cd'd to

PIN=1
DEVICE_PREFIX=xxx
DEV=true

Answer 1

Well there are multiple approaches, one that I don't see here is the most simplest

echo "
PIN=1
DEVICE_PREFIX=xxx
DEV=true
" > .env

with echo can do multi line printing and then redirect the output to the file i.e .env

Hope it helps

Answer 2

#!/bin/bash

text=$(cat << EOF
PIN=1
DEVICE_PREFIX=xxx
DEV=true
EOF
)

# Specify the path to the .env file
env_file=".env"

# Copy the text to the .env file
echo "$text" > "$env_file"

Answer 3

An alternative without creating/saving the data/input to a variable, something like:

#!/usr/bin/env sh

env_file=".env"

cat >> "$env_file" <<'EOF'
PIN=1
DEVICE_PREFIX=xxx
DEV=true
EOF

---

• The above construct is called Here Documents

A note on the redirections ( > and >> ) from the shell.

• The >> appends to the existing non-empty file.

  • See Appending Redirected Output

• The > Replaces the data/contents of an existing non-empty file.

  • See Redirecting Output

• A word of caution, the > truncates an existing file, but both >> and > creates it if it does not exists.

• See Redirections