Load environment variables from dotenv / .env file in Bash

load_dotenv.sh

if [ ! -f .env ]
then
  export $(cat .env | xargs)
fi

The Problem

The problem with .env files is that they're like bash, but not completely.
While in bash you'd sometimes put quotes around values:

name='value ! with > special & characters'

in .env files there are no special characters, and quotes are not supported: they're part of the value. As a result, such a string has to be escaped when imported into bash.

The Solution

This version withstands every special character in values:

set -a
source <(cat development.env | sed -e '/^#/d;/^\s*$/d' -e "s/'/'\\\''/g" -e "s/=\(.*\)/='\1'/g")
set +a

Explanation:

• -a means that every bash variable would become an environment variable
• /^#/d removes comments (strings that start with #)
• /^\s*$/d removes empty strings, including whitespace
• "s/'/'\\\''/g" replaces every single quote with '\'', which is a trick sequence in bash to produce a quote :)
• "s/=\(.*\)/='\1'/g" converts every a=b into a='b'

As a result, you are able to use special characters :)

To debug this code, replace source with cat and you'll see what this command produces.

@kolypto this doesn't work on comments after the assignment:
c=3 # three is prime

or with assignments to previously defined variables:
q='this string'
s=$q

export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g'| xargs) | envsubst)

This is the best one for me as I desperately needed POSIX variable substitution to work

@drjasonharrison the examples that you show are not a .env file; it's a bash file :)
If you want comments, and assigmnents, in the file that you're going to load, you don't need this thread at all ))) Just source it! bash can source bash )

The cleanest solution I found for this was using allexport and source like this

set -o allexport
source .env set
+o allexport

For anyone researching in search engines (as that's how I came across this), here's my take on it, combining @kolypto addition of substitution + fixes, original poster's use of confirming the .env file exists, several mentioning the use of set -a

# Confirm .env file exists
if [ -f .env ]; then

    # Create tmp clone
    cat .env > .env.tmp;

    # Subtitutions + fixes to .env.tmp2
    cat .env.tmp | sed -e '/^#/d;/^\s*$/d' -e "s/'/'\\\''/g" -e "s/=\(.*\)/='\1'/g" > .env.tmp2

    # Set the vars
    set -a; source .env.tmp2; set +a

    # Remove tmp files
    rm .env.tmp .env.tmp2

fi

I'm favorable of cases with incorrect variable usage in .env
test=hi there

Using the above method will fix the issue automatically.

FWIW If you need to just run a command with environment from an env file, this could help:

env $(cat .env|xargs) CMD

provided there are no other lines except env definitions in form of VAR=VALUE. Don't remember where I found it, but does the trick for me.

FWIW If you need to just run a command with environment from an env file, this could help:

env $(cat .env|xargs) CMD

provided there are no other lines except env definitions in form of VAR=VALUE. Don't remember where I found it, but does the trick for me.

Well that could have saved me an hour or two. 😁 The main reason for my answer was to incorporate the fixes that @kolypto mentioned.

Thanks for the info.

I had some problems with carriage return (\r) with dotenv files created via VS Code, so i'd like to share the code i used that resolved it:

export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g' | sed 's/\r//g' | xargs) | envsubst)

I had some problems with carriage return (\r) with dotenv files created via VS Code, so i'd like to share the code i used that resolved it:

export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g' | sed 's/\r//g' | xargs) | envsubst)

Thank you, great addition!

Since .env is so widely used, I think it would be a great addition to native Linux. Any clue how we could submit this as an addition to different distros? I mean integrated into the OS itself. I'm familiar with Linux and its commands but not how to submit an idea. I suppose it would be something I could fork and submit a pull request for.

Seeing that this thread has been going on for long years, I figured we need a dotenv tool for the shell.

And I wrote it.
https://github.com/ko1nksm/shdotenv

There is no formal specification for .env, and each is slightly different, but shdotenv supports them and correctly parses comments, whitespace, quotes, etc. It is a single file shell script that requires only awk and runs lightly.

There is no need to waste time on trial and error anymore.

Seeing that this thread has been going on for long years, I figured we need a dotenv tool for the shell.

And I wrote it.
https://github.com/ko1nksm/shdotenv

There is no formal specification for .env, and each is slightly different, but shdotenv supports them and correctly parses comments, whitespace, quotes, etc. It is a single file shell script that requires only awk and runs lightly.

There is no need to waste time on trial and error anymore.

This is great!

Wow @ko1nksm! This looks incredibly thorough. I look forward to using it, thank you.

FWIW - I found this helpful, but it didn't do what I had expected. Modified it slightly to result in the following.

if [ -f .env ]
then
  export $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g' | xargs)
fi

👍 * 100

Thank you so much for your solution .

source .env

works for me

source .env

works for me

wont work if you have # in your .env

@abhidp sorry, i didn't check that case...

# Local .env
if [ -f .env ]; then
    # Load Environment Variables
    export $(cat .env | grep -v '#' | sed 's/\r$//' | awk '/=/ {print $1}' )
fi

is what I use.. <.< it allows me to comment inside of the .env file :X and handles /r proper.. hope that helps everyone <3

Here is a modified version of this code that allows for variable expansion

if [ -f .env ]; then
  export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g'| xargs) | envsubst)
fi

This worked for me. Thanks

Went for:

loadEnv() {
  local envFile="${1?Missing environment file}"
  local environmentAsArray variableDeclaration
  mapfile environmentAsArray < <(
    grep --invert-match '^#' "${envFile}" \
      | grep --invert-match '^\s*$'
  ) # Uses grep to remove commented and blank lines
  for variableDeclaration in "${environmentAsArray[@]}"; do
    export "${variableDeclaration//[$'\r\n']}" # The substitution removes the line breaks
  done
}

It does not glob or swallow quotes, tested with:

WITH_QUOTES=''

# Comment
WITNESS=whatever

WITH_GLOB=*.sh

In this folder (so the glob matches the shell file):

.
├── .env
└── loadEnvTest.sh

With command:

source ./loadEnvTest.sh; loadEnv .env; echo "$WITH_QUOTES $WITH_GLOB"

Outputs:

'' *.sh

darbe habercisi

One I use (bash specific) which behaves correctly in presence of calling environment override:

. <(sed -n 's/^\([^#][^=]*\)=\(.*\)$/\1=${\1:-\2}/p' .env 2>/dev/null) || true

if [ ! -f .env ]
then
  export $(cat .env | xargs)
fi

I hate bash so much...... it took me 30 minutes to understand it should be if [ -f .env ] instead of if [ ! -f .env ] 😢

[ ! -f .env ] || export $(sed 's/#.*//g' .env | xargs)

Update:
TEXT="abc#def" not work as expected, so just replace line begin with #.

[ ! -f .env ] || export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

@chengxuncc

using export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) could not export the following,

A=10
B=$A
C=${A}

now, echo $B produces $A while it should print 10

@chengxuncc

using export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) could not export the following,

A=10
B=$A
C=${A}

now, echo $B produces $A while it should print 10

@ShivKJ Of course, it will equal to export A=10 B=$A C=${A} and doesn't work like shell script. Another example is /etc/environment have same behavior and don't accept variable definition.

If you're wondering how to load a .env file with direnv: direnv already supports that :)

dotenv "testing.env"

Docs: https://direnv.net/man/direnv-stdlib.1.html

The Problem

The problem with .env files is that they're like bash, but not completely.
While in bash you'd sometimes put quotes around values:

name='value ! with > special & characters'

in .env files there are no special characters, and quotes are not supported: they're part of the value. As a result, such a string has to be escaped when imported into bash.

The Solution

This version withstands every special character in values:

set -a
source <(cat development.env | sed -e '/^#/d;/^\s*$/d' -e "s/'/'\\\''/g" -e "s/=\(.*\)/='\1'/g")
set +a

Explanation:

• -a means that every bash variable would become an environment variable
• /^#/d removes comments (strings that start with #)
• /^\s*$/d removes empty strings, including whitespace
• "s/'/'\\\''/g" replaces every single quote with '\'', which is a trick sequence in bash to produce a quote :)
• "s/=\(.*\)/='\1'/g" converts every a=b into a='b'

As a result, you are able to use special characters :)

To debug this code, replace source with cat and you'll see what this command produces.

Thank you! I have some long and unusually formatted environment variables, and this was the only solution which didn't choke on them.

~/bin/envs

set -a
source .env
set +a
exec $@

$> envs go run .

export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

Thanks so much. I love it.

export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

Hats off man

Doesn't work for me because of JWT in the .env with lots of newlines.
Had to manually vim copy paste the contents instead.

this worked for me, from @rjchicago snippet
set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport

Here is a modified version of this code that allows for variable expansion

if [ -f .env ]; then
  export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g'| xargs) | envsubst)
fi

worked like a charm. Thanks!

FWIW If you need to just run a command with environment from an env file, this could help:

env $(cat .env|xargs) CMD

provided there are no other lines except env definitions in form of VAR=VALUE. Don't remember where I found it, but does the trick for me.

You can actually get away without xargs

env $(cat .env) <command>

export $( grep -vE "^(#.*|\s*)$" .env )

The cleanest solution I found for this was using allexport and source like this

set -o allexport
source .env set
+o allexport

This was by far the best solution here for me, removed all the complexity around certain chars, spaces comments etc. Just needed a tweak on formatting to prevent others being tripped up, should be:

set -o allexport
source .env
set +o allexport

The above worked fine for me, but thought I'd share the solution I went with: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30969768/179329 set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport

I like this too.

oh-my-zsh users can also activate the dotenv plugin.

source .env

works for me

wont work if you have # in your .env

Thanks for this.

Fantastic work on https://github.com/ko1nksm/shdotenv @ko1nksm ❤️

Great work ! :)

• I have .env with [VAR1=xyz, VAR2=233, NPM_TOKEN=123]

• Seems that this example from @valmayaki :

if [ -f .env ]; then
  export $(echo $(cat .env | sed 's/#.*//g'| xargs) | envsubst)
fi
# always response as one liner with all the variables

• I switched to use this without xargs:

export "$(grep -vE "^(#.*|\s*)$" .env)"
# as it's responding with single value ex: 
echo $NPM_TOKEN # just print the single variable

thanks to all for great cooperation <3

The above worked fine for me, but thought I'd share the solution I went with: https://stackoverflow.com/a/30969768/179329 set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport

This works!

The cleanest solution I found for this was using allexport and source like this

set -o allexport
source .env set
+o allexport

This was by far the best solution here for me, removed all the complexity around certain chars, spaces comments etc. Just needed a tweak on formatting to prevent others being tripped up, should be:

set -o allexport source .env set +o allexport

Many thanks for this solution reference

That 's great, thanks

@chengxuncc

using export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) could not export the following,

A=10
B=$A
C=${A}

now, echo $B produces $A while it should print 10

this read line by line, allowing to use previous set variables

  while read -r LINE; do
    if [[ $LINE == *'='* ]] && [[ $LINE != '#'* ]]; then
      ENV_VAR="$(echo $LINE | envsubst)"
      eval "declare $ENV_VAR"
    fi
  done < .env

@wffranco

@chengxuncc
using export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs) could not export the following,

A=10
B=$A
C=${A}

now, echo $B produces $A while it should print 10

this read line by line, allowing to use previous set variables

  while read -r LINE; do
    if [[ $LINE == *'='* ]] && [[ $LINE != '#'* ]]; then
      ENV_VAR="$(echo $LINE | envsubst)"
      eval "declare $ENV_VAR"
    fi
  done < .env

This solution is helpful!
Thanks a lot!

You can also do:

eval "$(
  cat .env | awk '!/^\s*#/' | awk '!/^\s*$/' | while IFS='' read -r line; do
    key=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 1)
    value=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 2-)
    echo "export $key=\"$value\""
  done
)"

This ignores empty lines, and lines starting with # (comments). If you replace eval with echo - you can inspect the generated code.

The cleanest solution I found for this was using allexport and source like this

set -o allexport
source .env set
+o allexport

This was by far the best solution here for me, removed all the complexity around certain chars, spaces comments etc. Just needed a tweak on formatting to prevent others being tripped up, should be:

set -o allexport
source .env
set +o allexport

From man set:

       -o option
             This  option  is  supported if the system supports the User Portability Utilities op‐
             tion. It shall set various options, many of which shall be equivalent to  the  single
             option letters. The following values of option shall be supported:

             allexport Equivalent to -a.

So this is the same as

set -a            
source .env
set +a

[ ! -f .env ] || export $(sed 's/#.*//g' .env | xargs)

Update: TEXT="abc#def" not work as expected, so just replace line begin with #.

[ ! -f .env ] || export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

This one works for django .env

this works for me

#!/usr/bin/env bash
. .env

For those using sed to rewrite their .env files before evaluation by bash, for example the solution suggested by @kolypto in https://gist.github.com/mihow/9c7f559807069a03e302605691f85572?permalink_comment_id=3625310#gistcomment-3625310

I ran into another case that hadn't been considered: Windows line endings "\r\n". I'm now using:

    set -o allexport # enable all variable definitions to be exported
    source <(sed -e "s/\r//" -e '/^#/d;/^\s*$/d' -e "s/'/'\\\''/g" -e "s/=\(.*\)/=\"\1\"/g" "${ENV_FILE}")
    set +o allexport

The cleanest solution I found for this was using allexport and source like this

set -o allexport
source .env set
+o allexport

This was by far the best solution here for me, removed all the complexity around certain chars, spaces comments etc. Just needed a tweak on formatting to prevent others being tripped up, should be:
set -o allexport
source .env
set +o allexport

From man set:

       -o option
             This  option  is  supported if the system supports the User Portability Utilities op‐
             tion. It shall set various options, many of which shall be equivalent to  the  single
             option letters. The following values of option shall be supported:

             allexport Equivalent to -a.

So this is the same as

set -a            
source .env
set +a

Worked for me

The above worked fine for me, but thought I'd share the solution I went with:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/30969768/179329

set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport

As @richarddewit pointed out above, -a/+a can be used in place of -o allexport to be more concise (thanks!).

I now use the following simple line to source .env files into my scripts...

set -a; source .env; set +a

export $(awk -F= '{output=output" "$1"="$2} END {print output}' aaa.env)

[ ! -f .env ] || export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

Sweet, works like a charm for me, thanks.

oh-my-zsh users can also activate the dotenv plugin.

thank you this was better

I had troubles with a (Docker) setup where environment variables had spaces in their value without quotes and I needed to get the container's env. vars. in a script called during the container execution/runtime.

I ended getting the variables in the entrypoint, exporting them to a file and them reading them when needed.

# In entrypoint
export -pn \
    | grep "=" \
    | grep -v -e PATH -e PWD -e OLDPWD \
    | cut -d ' ' -f 3- \
    > /docker-container.env

The export command fixes issues with missing quotes, avoiding errors where the shell interpreter tries to execute parts of the variable value as commands.

# In script
set -o allexport
. /docker-container.env
set +o allexport

(I had to use /bin/sh so not using source file but . file)

oh-my-zsh users can also activate the dotenv plugin.

Fantastic! Thanks @n1k0!

Posix compliant version built around set, [ ] and . Many thanks to the prior posters who brought up set -o a and set -a / set +a

This snippet will source a dotenv file, exporting the values into the environment. If allexport is already set, it leaves it set, otherwise it sets, reads, and unsets.

if [ -z "${-%%*a*}" ]; then
    set -a
    . ./.env
    set +a
else
    . ./.env
fi

double brackets [[, source, setopt are not available in posix. Nor is the test [[ -o a ]] to check for set options. And we need to quote our comparison strings to deal with empty vars.

The code to check if an option is set is a bit of a pain. It could be a case statement or a grep on set -o like set -o | grep allexport | grep -q yes, but blech. Instead I've used parameter expansion with pattern matching to remove a maximum match from the $- variable containing a single line of the set options.

${-%%*a*} uses %% parameter expansion to remove the longest suffix matching the pattern *a*. If $- contains a then this expansion produces and empty string which we can test with -z or -n.

subtle bug if no options are set, so the comparison "$-" = "${-%%a*}" will check that the expansion changed the string. allexport is set if the two strings differ. And even % will work as we don't need a maximal match and can remove the leading * from our pattern match.

if [ "$-" = "${-%a*}" ]; then
    # allexport is not set
    set -a
    . ./.env
    set +a
else
    . ./.env
fi

When the values have newline chars \n, spaces or quotes, it can get messy.

After a lot of trial and error, I ended up with a variation of what @bergkvist proposed in https://gist.github.com/mihow/9c7f559807069a03e302605691f85572?permalink_comment_id=4245050#gistcomment-4245050 (thank you very much!).

ENV_VARS="$(cat .env | awk '!/^\s*#/' | awk '!/^\s*$/')"

eval "$(
  printf '%s\n' "$ENV_VARS" | while IFS='' read -r line; do
    key=$(printf '%s\n' "$line"| sed 's/"/\\"/g' | cut -d '=' -f 1)
    value=$(printf '%s\n' "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 2- | sed 's/"/\\\"/g')
    printf '%s\n' "export $key=\"$value\""
  done
)"

env $(cat .env)
this does not work for me but this one works

env $(cat .env|xargs) CMD

my .env has some special value such as FOO='VPTO&wH7$^3ZHZX$o$udY4&i'
@NatoBoram