env

Simple, predictable, 0-dependency environment variable management tool for NodeJS, written in Typescript and compiled to es3 for high compatibility.

The env npm package has fallen into disrepair and destitution, and unfortunately the creator appears unresponsive to pull requests that would address the open issues. This is my solution.

Installation

$ npm i @camsmith145/env

or

$ yarn add @camsmith145/env

Usage

Import environment variables from a json file or an exported js object. The package exports a function which accepts the path to a file.

const {env} = require( '@camsmith145/env' )
env() /* Looks for file named '.env' in process.cwd() */
env('./path/to/file') /* Resolves './path/to/file' in relation to process.cwd() and tries to parse file content */

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
path	string | undefined	Absolute or relative path to a file. Defaults to ./.env
options	Object	A few modifications to the behavior

Path Resolution

Base of path Parameter Value	Method of import	Expected File Content
undefined	JSON.parse(/* content of ./.env */)	Serialized JSON object
.env	JSON.parse(/* content of ./.env */)	Serialized JSON object
.env.json	JSON.parse(/* content of ./.env.json */)	Serialized JSON object
.env.js	JSON.parse(/* content of ./.env.js */)	JS module exports Object

Options Object

Property	Type	Default	Description
ignoreErrors	boolean | undefined	false	Do not throw an Error if verification of variable assignment to process.env[name] fails.
yieldExisting	boolean | undefined	false	Do not overwrite existing environment variables of the same name. (Sets ignoreErrors to true)
suppressWarnings	boolean | undefined	false	When ignoreErrors is true, do not print a warning message to the console if verification of assignment to process.env[name] fails.

Value Serialization

Values assigned to properties of process.env may only be strings. Therefore, any properties within the env file are serialized using JSON.stringify prior to property assignment.

Values that are number, Object, Array should be de-serialized upon access using parseInt(n, radix), JSON.parse, etc.

Values that are Date should be reconstructed using new Date(process.env[key]).

Example

In ./config/test.env :

{
    "variable_name": {
        "key": "value"
    }
}

/* index.js */
const {env} = require( '@camsmith145/env' )
env('./config/test.env')

const myObject = JSON.parse(process.env.variable_name)

console.log(myObject.key) // 'value'

MIT Licensed