dotenv-finder

dotenv-finder is a simple function that traverses the process.mainModule.paths attempting to locate a .env file.

Works best with dotenv by motdotla.

Why do I need this helper function?

Maybe you don’t? You probably don’t. In fact, I probably don’t… but here we are. With a .env file in your project’s root directory and the ubiquitous dotenv module you’re probably all set.

When set-up correctly, you’re already ready to node app.js or npm start from your project’s root directory… but what if you want to node foo.js in some other my-project/bar/ directory?

dotenv uses process.cwd() to get the expected root directory to search for the .env file. When in a directory other than project root (and therefore without your .env file) you won’t be able to load and use your .env variables (easily, nor dynamically).

# let's assume you have my-project/.env but are working in my-project/lib/
node foo.js
# won’t load your .env variables

dotenv has the ability to specify a path other than your current working directory with: .config({ path: ‘/foo/bar/.env’ }) which overrides the process.cwd() default. This, however, creates three challenges:

1. Requires you to specify the absolute path to your .env file (which can be long and subject to typos and copypasta errors).
2. Requires you to remember which project/path you’re in (which if you’re switching projects a lot is no easy task).
3. Requires you to manually update this path if your project folder moves, etc.

I want the best of both worlds:

1. Dynamically know which path and project I’m in
2. Allow me to call node foo.js from any project subdirectory

Enter dotenv-finder

Install

# npm 5.0.0+ saves be default, otherwise add ` --save`
npm install dotenv-finder

Usage

This helper function assumes you already have a .env file in the root directory of your project, as well as dotenv already set-up and working.

# my-project/.env
FOO="bar"

BEFORE you require and configure dotenv you need to require dotenv-finder (also, we need to configure dotenv with our helper function findDotEnvFile()).

require(‘dotenv-finder’)
require(‘dotenv’).config({ path: findDotEnvFile() })

That’s it! You’re all set.

FAQ

Why?

See above. But mostly because I could. Well… I couldn’t, but I wanted to test and learn.

How does it work?

findDotEnvFile() looks in all the same paths as node_modules. It gets the paths list from process.mainModule.paths and tests each path for a .env file. It then returns the space-escaped absolute path to the .env file.

What about multiple .env files?

That's a great question... and I'm not sure. I haven't tested this on multiple .env files as I have no use for that setup. I assume the helper function would return the "left-most" .env file it could find... in other words, a .env file in /Users/foo/.env would likely return if found even if you wanted /Users/foo/my-project/.env -- use at your own risk!