Dotenv files for Haskell

In most applications, configuration should be separated from code. While it usually works well to keep configuration in the environment, there are cases where you may want to store configuration in a file outside of version control.

“Dotenv” files have become popular for storing configuration, especially in development and test environments. In Ruby, Python and Javascript there are libraries to facilitate loading of configuration options from configuration files. This library loads configuration to environment variables for programs written in Haskell.

Install

In most cases you will just add dotenv to your cabal file. You can also install the library and executable by invoking stack install dotenv or you can download the dotenv binaries from our releases page.

Usage

Set configuration variables in a file following the format below:

S3_BUCKET=YOURS3BUCKET
SECRET_KEY=YOURSECRETKEYGOESHERE

Then, calling Dotenv.load from your Haskell program reads the above settings into the environment:

import Configuration.Dotenv (loadFile, defaultConfig)
loadFile defaultConfig

After calling Dotenv.load, you are able to read the values set in your environment using standard functions from System.Environment or System.Environment.Blank (base >= 4.11.0.0), such as getEnv.

If your version of base is < 4.11.0.0, then setting an environment variable value to a blank string will remove the variable from the environment entirely.

Variable substitution

In order to use compound env vars use the following syntax within your env vars ${your_env_var}. For instance:

DATABASE=postgres://${USER}@localhost/database

Running it on the CLI:

$ dotenv "echo $DATABASE"
postgres://myusername@localhost/database

Command substitution

In order to use the standard output of a command in your env vars use the following syntax $(your_command). For instance:

DATABASE=postgres://$(whoami)@localhost/database

Running it on the CLI:

$ dotenv "echo $DATABASE"
postgres://myusername@localhost/database

Surrond with quotes

If your value starts with a character that produces a parse error (e.g. {) . Surround your value with quotes. You can also escape the quotes if they’re inside your value. For example:

JSON_SQ='{"a":[1,2,3], "b": "\'asdf\'"}'
JSON_DQ="{\"a\":[1,2,3], \"b\": \"'asdf'\"}"

Run it:

$ dotenv "echo $JSON_SQ" | jq .a
[
  1,
  2,
  3
]

Configuration

The first argument to loadFile specifies the configuration. You can use defaultConfig which parses the .env file in your current directory and doesn’t override your envs. You can also define your own configuration with the Config type.

False in configOverride means Dotenv will respect already-defined variables, and True means Dotenv will overwrite already-defined variables.

In the configPath you can write a list of all the dotenv files where are envs defined (e.g [".env", ".tokens", ".public_keys"]).

In the configExamplePath you can write a list of all the dotenv example files where you can specify which envs must be defined until running a program (e.g [".env.example", ".tokens.example", ".public_keys.example"]). If you don’t need this functionality you can set configExamplePath to an empty list.

A False in the configVerbose means that Dotenv will not print any message when loading the envs. A True means that Dotenv will print a message when a variable is loaded.

A False on allowDuplicates means that Dotenv will not allow duplicate keys, and instead it will throw an error. A True means that Dotenv will allow duplicate keys, and it will use the last one defined in the file (default behavior).

Advanced Dotenv File Syntax

You can add comments to your Dotenv file, on separate lines or after values. Values can be wrapped in single or double quotes. Multi-line values can be specified by wrapping the value in double-quotes, and using the “\n” character to represent newlines.

The spec file is the best place to understand the nuances of Dotenv file parsing.

Command-Line Usage

You can call dotenv from the command line in order to load settings from one or more dotenv file before invoking an executable:

$ dotenv -f mydotenvfile myprogram

The -f flag is optional, by default it looks for the .env file in the current working directory.

$ dotenv myprogram

Additionally, you can pass arguments and flags to the program passed to Dotenv:

$ dotenv -f mydotenvfile myprogram -- --myflag myargument

or:

$ dotenv -f mydotenvfile "myprogram --myflag myargument"

Also, you can use a --example flag to use dotenv-safe functionality so that you can have a list of strict envs that should be defined in the environment or in your dotenv files before the execution of your program. For instance:

$ cat .env.example
DOTENV=
FOO=
BAR=

$ cat .env
DOTENV=123

$ echo $FOO
123

This will fail:

$ dotenv -f .env --example .env.example "myprogram --myflag myargument"
> dotenv: The following variables are present in .env.example, but not set in the current environment, or .env: BAR

This will succeed:

$ export BAR=123 # Or you can do something like: "echo 'BAR=123' >> .env"
$ dotenv -f .env --example .env.example "myprogram --myflag myargument"

Hint: The env program in most Unix-like environments prints out the current environment settings. By invoking the program env in place of myprogram above you can see what the environment will look like after evaluating multiple Dotenv files.

License

MIT, see the LICENSE file.

Contributing

Do you want to contribute to this project? Please take a look at our contributing guideline to know how you can help us build it.

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