Load environment variables from dotenv / .env file in Bash

load_dotenv.sh

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

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 :)

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)

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)

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"
}

Thanks @MansourM !

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"
}

Looks great, but it doesn't work if the .env file contains only 1 row (just one without br)

Looks great, but it doesn't work if the .env file contains only 1 row (just one without br)

how do you use it?
you get any errors?
btw u need to comment or remove this line as you don't have the log function
log "Reading $filePath"