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Environment variables

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Environment variables play a crucial role in managing configuration settings for your application, enabling you to tailor your project’s behavior without modifying the codebase.

What Are Environment Variables?

Environment variables are key-value pairs used to configure software behavior at runtime. They are often employed to store sensitive or environment-specific information, such as API keys, database connection strings, or feature flags.

Common Uses

  • Authentication: Storing secrets like API keys or OAuth tokens.
  • Configuration: Defining environment-specific settings such as database URLs.
  • Debugging: Enabling or disabling debug modes.

Setting Up Environment Variables

In a Local Development Environment

  1. Create a .env file in the root of your project.
  2. Add key-value pairs in the format KEY=VALUE.

Example:

DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@localhost:5432/mydb
API_KEY=your-api-key-here

Note: Ensure your .env file is included in .gitignore to avoid committing sensitive information to your version control system.

In a Production Environment

Environment variables can be set through your hosting provider’s dashboard, command-line tools, or CI/CD pipelines. Refer to your specific platform’s documentation for exact instructions.

Example for Linux:

Terminal window
export DATABASE_URL=postgres://user:password@prod:5432/mydb

Accessing Environment Variables

In Node.js

Environment variables can be accessed using process.env.

Example:

const dbUrl = process.env.DATABASE_URL;
console.log(`Connecting to database at ${dbUrl}`);

In Other Frameworks

Most modern frameworks provide built-in support for managing environment variables. Refer to your framework’s documentation for best practices.

Best Practices

  1. Do not hardcode sensitive information. Always use environment variables for secrets and keys.
  2. Use descriptive keys. Choose meaningful names that convey their purpose (e.g., API_KEY, DATABASE_URL).
  3. Keep environment variables organized. Group them logically, especially in large projects.
  4. Validate environment variables. Ensure required variables are set, and provide default values where applicable.

Example:

if (!process.env.DATABASE_URL) {
  throw new Error("DATABASE_URL is not set.");
}

Further Reading