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@mihow
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Load environment variables from dotenv / .env file in Bash
if [ ! -f .env ]
then
export $(cat .env | xargs)
fi
@asolera
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asolera commented Apr 9, 2021

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)

@asheroto
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asheroto commented Apr 9, 2021

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.

@ko1nksm
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ko1nksm commented Apr 12, 2021

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.

@asheroto
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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!

@mihow
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Author

mihow commented Apr 13, 2021

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

@GusGA
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GusGA commented Apr 17, 2021

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

@lionelkouame
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Thank you so much for your solution .

@muthugit
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muthugit commented May 4, 2021

source .env

works for me

@abhidp
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abhidp commented May 28, 2021

source .env

works for me

wont work if you have # in your .env

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

@Bioblaze
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Bioblaze commented Jun 6, 2021

# 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

@Bashorun97
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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

@quilicicf
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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

@maxweber3
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darbe habercisi

@msmans
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msmans commented Jul 31, 2021

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

@shlomi-viz
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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 ] 😢

@chengxuncc
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chengxuncc commented Aug 26, 2021

[ ! -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)

@ShivKJ
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ShivKJ commented Aug 30, 2021

@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
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@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.

@kolypto
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kolypto commented Sep 12, 2021

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

@jhud
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jhud commented Sep 20, 2021

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.

@jquick
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jquick commented Sep 21, 2021

~/bin/envs

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

$> envs go run .

@lsotoj
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lsotoj commented Sep 21, 2021

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

Thanks so much. I love it.

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

Hats off man

@xmarkclx
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xmarkclx commented Oct 7, 2021

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

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

@geekwhocodes
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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!

@NatoBoram
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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>

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

@J5Dev
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J5Dev commented Nov 8, 2021

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

@MrYutz
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MrYutz commented Nov 11, 2021

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.

@n1k0
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n1k0 commented Mar 1, 2022

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

@BinitaBharati
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source .env

works for me

wont work if you have # in your .env

Thanks for this.

@xswirelab
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@devzom
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devzom commented Mar 16, 2022

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

@michchan
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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!

@alphanetEX
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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

@theofanisv
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That 's great, thanks

@wffranco
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wffranco commented Jun 29, 2022

@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

@Krong1997
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@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!

@bergkvist
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bergkvist commented Jul 26, 2022

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.

@richarddewit
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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

@jairajsahgal
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[ ! -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

@SrEnrique
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this works for me

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

@drjasonharrison
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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

@bolorundurovj
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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

@rjchicago
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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

@miedza
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miedza commented Sep 29, 2022

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

@bergpb
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bergpb commented Dec 9, 2022

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

Sweet, works like a charm for me, thanks.

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

thank you this was better

@C-Duv
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C-Duv commented Jan 20, 2023

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)

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

Fantastic! Thanks @n1k0!

@spazm
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spazm commented Mar 1, 2023

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

@guillermodlpa
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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
)"

@khoahuynhdev
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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

@simonrouse9461
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A simple solution that works for bash, zsh, and fish:

eval export $(cat .env)

@lalten
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lalten commented Jul 11, 2023

Use this to create the file

export -p > .env

and just

. .env

to read it back in

From man export:

The shell shall format the output, including the proper use of quoting, so that it is suitable for reinput to the shell as commands that achieve the same exporting results

@ddosia
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ddosia commented Aug 2, 2023

Although set -a; source .env; set +a is elegant and short, one feature which I missed is this overwrite existing exported variables.
I my use case I have a script, which connects to postgres with a predefined user. This user is stored in .env file as PG_USER=myuser. So the script does the magical set -a; source .env; set +a and everything works. But sometimes I need ad-hoc change the user. So what I'd do is PG_USER=postgres ./my_script.sh. In order not to over write the existing var I did this horrendous piece of code:

IFS=$'\n'
for l in $(cat /etc/my_service/.env); do
    IFS='=' read -ra VARVAL <<< "$l"
    # If variable with such name already exists, preserves it's value
    eval "export ${VARVAL[0]}=\${${VARVAL[0]}:-${VARVAL[1]}}"
done
unset IFS

@dangvanduc90
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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

work like a charm. ty

@MansourM
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MansourM commented Nov 24, 2023

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 was working the best for me but this still has 2 problems

  1. code breaks if the value has () characters inside it
  2. can not be used inside a function

here is my solution:

read_env() {
  local filename="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filename" ]; then
    echo "missing ${filename} file"
    exit 1
  fi

  echo "reading .env file..."
  while read -r LINE; do
    if [[ $LINE != '#'* ]] && [[ $LINE == *'='* ]]; then
      export "$LINE"
    fi
  done < "$filename"
}

UPDATED VERSION BELOW

@emilwojcik93
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emilwojcik93 commented Jan 7, 2024

Hi, here is mine solution to read vars from /etc/environemnt file which I used in /etc/profile or /etc/bash.bashrc

oneliner for easier validation if line exists in file
(I removed single quotes ' from conditions, so it could be easier parsed by grep)

while read -r LINE; do [[ ${LINE} =~ ^# || ${LINE} =~ ^PATH= || ! ${LINE} == *=* || ${LINE} =~ ^[0-9] || ${LINE} =~ ^[^a-zA-Z_] ]] || export "${LINE}"; done < "/etc/environment"

or formatad syntax:

while read -r LINE; do 
  if [[ ${LINE} =~ ^# || ${LINE} =~ ^PATH= || ! ${LINE} == *=* || ${LINE} =~ ^[0-9] || ${LINE} =~ ^[^a-zA-Z_] ]]; then
    continue
  else
    export "${LINE}"
  fi
done < "/etc/environment"

@shadiabuhilal
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shadiabuhilal commented Feb 2, 2024

Hi,

Here is my solution to read vars from .env file and ignoring # and cleaning values from ' and ".

https://gist.github.com/shadiabuhilal/220aa09f9bb83caed93a1f87401fcc60

dot-env.sh File:

#!/bin/bash

# Specify the path to your .env file
ENV_FILE=".env"

# Check if the .env file exists
if [ -f "$ENV_FILE" ]; then

  echo "[INFO]: Reading $ENV_FILE file."

  # Read the .env file line by line
  while IFS= read -r line; do
    # Skip comments and empty lines
    if [[ "$line" =~ ^\s*#.*$ || -z "$line" ]]; then
      continue
    fi

    # Split the line into key and value
    key=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 1)
    value=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 2-)

    # Remove single quotes, double quotes, and leading/trailing spaces from the value
    value=$(echo "$value" | sed -e "s/^'//" -e "s/'$//" -e 's/^"//' -e 's/"$//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//')

    # Export the key and value as environment variables
    export "$key=$value"
  done < "$ENV_FILE"
  echo "[DONE]: Reading $ENV_FILE file."
else
  echo "[ERROR]: $ENV_FILE not found."
fi

Enjoy :)

@cihadturhan
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Thanks!
One-liner while running command a script (such as pnpm script)
I added parentheses not to pollute global environment vars. Not sure if it's needed though.

(export $(cat .env | xargs) && pnpm compile)

@rrakso
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rrakso commented Feb 28, 2024

source .env

works for me

wont work if you have # in your .env

@abhidp it seems, that it works well - even with comments in .env! :D (cc: @muthugit)

@MansourM
Copy link

this is the final version that im using, seems to work for all situations

read_env() {
  local filePath="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filePath" ]; then
    echo "missing ${filePath}"
    exit 1
  fi

  log "Reading $filePath"
  while read -r LINE; do
    # Remove leading and trailing whitespaces, and carriage return
    CLEANED_LINE=$(echo "$LINE" | awk '{$1=$1};1' | tr -d '\r')

    if [[ $CLEANED_LINE != '#'* ]] && [[ $CLEANED_LINE == *'='* ]]; then
      export "$CLEANED_LINE"
    fi
  done < "$filePath"
}

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