Setup environment variables?

[Guy Halford-Thompson]

What is the best way to setup environment variables (e.g. DEVELOPMENT,
PRODUCTION, TESTING) in node?

I use different ports and database info for test/production servers
and was wondering what the best way to make this a bit more automated
is.

Thanks

--
Guy Halford-Thompson - http://www.cach.me/blog

[Aria Stewart]

On Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Guy Halford-Thompson wrote:
What is the best way to setup environment variables (e.g. DEVELOPMENT,
> PRODUCTION, TESTING) in node?
>
> I use different ports and database info for test/production servers
> and was wondering what the best way to make this a bit more automated
> is.

Look at process.env?
----
Aria Stewart

[Guy Halford-Thompson]

I have, but there is only a couple of lines of documentation... could
someone point me to an example?

Ty

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[Matt]

if (process.env.DEVELOPMENT) {
// setup devel stuff
}
else if (process.env.TESTING) {
// setup testing stuff
}
else {
// assume production
}

then start in bash as: DEVELOPMENT=1 node code.js

[mscdex]

On Mar 24, 12:28 pm, Guy Halford-Thompson <g...@cach.me> wrote:
> I have, but there is only a couple of lines of documentation... could
> someone point me to an example?

It's just a plain js object:

process.env['JOBS'] = 8; // Set
console.log(process.env['JOBS']); // Get

[Guy Halford-Thompson]

Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific in my question... I was
wondering how to set the variables on the server, not access them in
node

I understand how you can access
....
process.env['JOBS']
...

but how do I set the variable 'JOBS' on my server? This cannot be
done in my node files as they will be the same on all servers.

Thanks for the help

G

[Corey Jewett]

On Mar 24, 2011, at 10:33 , Guy Halford-Thompson wrote:

> Sorry, I should have been a bit more specific in my question... I was
> wondering how to set the variables on the server, not access them in
> node
>
> I understand how you can access
> ....
> process.env['JOBS']
> ...
>
> but how do I set the variable 'JOBS' on my server? This cannot be
> done in my node files as they will be the same on all servers.

Depends on your shell's syntax for environment variables (google
that), but typically:

$> JOBS=123
$> export JOBS
$> node
> process.env["JOBS"]
'123'

Corey

[Isaac Schlueter]

Matt answered your question above.

Let's say you have this in your server.js file:

if (process.env.SERVER === "PRODUCTION") { .. produce stuff .. }

There are many ways to set environment variables.

You can set them on the command line for just one command:

$ SERVER=PRODUCTION node server.js

You can export them into your shell environment:

$ export SERVER=PRODUCTION
$ node server.js

You can export them from a shell script:

# foo.sh
export SERVER=PRODUCTION

$ source foo.sh # not ./foo.sh! that would run in a subshell
$ node server.js

You can pass a key-value list to the "env" command:

$ echo SERVER=PRODUCTION >> server-profile
$ echo FOO=bar >> server-profile
$ env $(cat server-profile) node server.js

If you're starting your program with node's child_process.spawn, you
can pass them on the options object:

child_process.spawn("node", ["server.js"], { env: { SERVER: "PRODUCTION" }})

If you're starting your program with execp in C, you can use the
"environ" extern.

extern char **environ;
int main (int argc, char** argv) {
char **saved_env;
int ret;
saved_env = environ;
environ = { "SERVER=PRODUCTION" };
ret = execvp("node", { "server.js" });
environ = saved_env;
return ret;
}

If you're loading your program from your bash login shell, you can put
this in your ~/.bashrc:

export SERVER=PRODUCTION

If you're running it with SMF, you can put this in your manifest xml:
<method_environment>
<envvar name="SERVER" value="PRODUCTION"/>
</method_environment>

There are probably other ways to set environment vars. "man sh" and
"man bash" have sections on this.

Environs are a pretty core Unix feature. Think of it like another set
of arguments to your program.

--i

[Matt]

It's pretty basic unix knowledge.

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 2:18 PM, Guy Halford-Thompson <g...@cach.me> wrote:

Hi Isaac,

Thanks for your detailed response, that makes it very clear. Would it
be worth adding this to the documentation at some point? Or is it just
be being v inexperienced...

Thanks also to everyone else for you help.

Guy

[Guy Halford-Thompson]

Hi Isaac,

Thanks for your detailed response, that makes it very clear. Would it
be worth adding this to the documentation at some point? Or is it just
be being v inexperienced...

Thanks also to everyone else for you help.

Guy

[Dhirender Tyagi]

I think you should use foreman npm. Where you have to create a .env file to create your environment varible.