Native support for .env files

[mdonnalley]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

@oclif/core should natively support .env files using process.loadEnvFile

Describe the solution you'd like

Call process.loadEnvFile at the beginning of run using path set in settings

The call should be gated by a check for the node version to avoid any runtime errors.

[git2gus]

This issue has been linked to a new work item: W-15694504

[beforeoafterm]

Is there any workaround for supporting .env files in oclif?

[mdonnalley]

You can you use dotenv in CLI's bin/run.js to load a .env file

[beforeoafterm]

You can you use dotenv in CLI's bin/run.js to load a .env file

@mdonnalley I see! I've already done this actually. 😄 But how can I make that work for the bin/run.cmd bin file for Windows?

[mdonnalley]

bin/run.cmd just runs bin/run.js so whatever you do in there should also work for windows

[visargashi]

There is an easier, more elegant solution. You can implement a hook, and load the dotenv in the hook. You can even parse the command args for a custom --env path and load that custom path using dotenv.config({ path });. Using the init hook will ensure it's there for the entire execution.

[beforeoafterm]

There is an easier, more elegant solution. You can implement a hook, and load the dotenv in the hook. You can even parse the command args for a custom --env path and load that custom path using dotenv.config({ path });. Using the init hook will ensure it's there for the entire execution.

Interested to see how that looks like, @visargashi. Would you be able to provide a reference on how that could be implemented?

[visargashi]

There is an easier, more elegant solution. You can implement a hook, and load the dotenv in the hook. You can even parse the command args for a custom --env path and load that custom path using dotenv.config({ path });. Using the init hook will ensure it's there for the entire execution.

Interested to see how that looks like, @visargashi. Would you be able to provide a reference on how that could be implemented?

Create a new hook, e.g. npx oclif@latest generate hook dotenv-init, then in the generated file, you add dotenv, e.g.:

import dotenv from 'dotenv';
import { Hook } from '@oclif/core';

const hook: Hook<'init'> = async function (opts) {
  // you can specify additional location here, using `opts`
  dotenv.config();
};

export default hook;