Adding conventions for loading environment variables?

[emilos]

A common issue with deploying the app is ensuring that everything works. Sometimes you end up seeing that something is not working due to misconfiguration/ missing env variables.

Some time ago I wrote this: https://github.com/buxlabs/envb to make it a bit easier to control env variables.

It has a simple API:

• env.fetch('SOME_ENV_VAR') throws if the variable is missing
• env.get('SOME_ENV_VAR') does not throw

There are probably better libs, just wanted to highlight the idea.

[zaiste]

@emilos I like this idea! In which scenerios you would use the method that does not throw? Maybe we should force throwing, so it's explicit and easier to discover for users ?

[emilos]

Some environment variables are not necessary for the app to work, e.g. env.get('SESSION_TIMEOUT') || 10.

Some are, e.g. env.fetch('EXTERNAL_SERVICE_URL').

It might make sense to always require them, not sure what's the right balance here.

[FDiskas]

I would suggest https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv
it is way more popular and extendable. create react app and other are using it