dotenv-init

Creates an initial .env file by parsing a project's source code. The .env is intended for use with dotenv (npm). The optional .env.example file is intended for use with dotenv-safe (npm).

Installation

npm install -g dotenv-init

Usage

This package accepts a list of files which are parsed for the usage of any environment variables. The environment variables are searched for with a basic set of guidelines. First, the string process.env. must follow a = or : to indicate its value is being used. Second, if the process.env.ENV_VAR is followed by ||, the or'ed value is used as the default value in the .env files.

When processing the files, if an environment variable is not assigned a default value, it is assumed to be required. Any environment variables that are required will still be output to the .env file with an empty value (# NODE_ENV=). If the --safe option is used, the required environment variables are also output to the .env.example file for use by dotenv-safe.

After parsing all the files, the list of environment variables are sorted into alphabetical order.

Examples

When installed globally, one of the following commands from the root directory of the target project works well for sending the list of .js files to dotenv-init.

dotenv-init '**/*.js'
dotenv-init 'client/**/*.js' 'server/**/*.js'
dotenv-init --ignore 'node_modules/**' 'client/**/*.js' 'server/**/*.js'

Assigned with =

const environment = process.env.NODE_ENV || 'development'
const tokenSecret = process.env.TOKEN_SECRET
// .env output:
// # NODE_ENV=development
// # TOKEN_SECRET=

// .env.example output:
// # TOKEN_SECRET=

Assigned as part of an object :

const dbSettings = {
  username: process.env.DB_USER,
  password: process.env.DB_PWRD,
  dialect: process.env.DB_DIALECT || 'mysql'
}
// outputs:
// # DB_DIALECT=mysql
// # DB_PWRD=
// # DB_USER=

// .env.example output:
// # DB_PWRD=
// # DB_USER=

Options

Usage: dotenv-init [options] <file ...>


  Options:

    -V, --version              output the version number
    -s, --safe                 .env.example is also output for use with dotenv-safe
    -c, --comments             include comments when parsing for environment variables
    -i, --ignore <patterns>    files to ignore as part of file patterns; overrides default ('node_modules/**,test/**')
    -o, --output [level]       set the console output level [normal] (silent|normal|verbose)
    -O, --file-output [level]  set the file output level [normal] (minimal|normal|verbose)
    --filename [name]          chose the name of the output file [.env]
    --safe-filename [name]     chose the name of the safe output file [.env.example]
    -h, --help                 output usage information

-h, --help

This option outputs the help menu as shown above.

-V, --version

This option outputs the current version of dotenv-init.

-s, --safe

Default: false

This option will output the .env.example file.

-c, --comments

Default: false

This option will include environment variables in comments when parsing

-i, --ignore

Default: 'node_modules/**', 'test/**'

This option is a comma separated list of patterns to ignore when collecting files to read. The default value excludes files in node_modules and test directories.

-o, --output [level]

Default: normal

This option adjust the level of output sent to the console. Acceptable values are silent, normal, or verbose.

-O, --file-output [level]

Default: normal

This option adjust the level of output sent to the files that are written. Acceptable values are minimal, normal, or verbose.

--filename [name]

Default: .env

This option allows the output file to be given a different name from the default.

--safe-filename [name]

Default: .env.example

This option allows the safe output file to be given a different name from the default.

Contributing

This project is very new and does not cover all the corner cases that it should. If there is a feature you would like added or a corner case not properly covered, please open an issue on Github.

Roadmap

Future

• make current functionality a separate command (probably "parse")
• create a new command initialize(?) for setting up initial .env
• create a new command merge(?) that takes an existing .env file and merges in newly parsed results

License

MIT