how to change the path in dotenv with various script commands (in package.json) such as : start , test , etc

well my problem is when I want to switch my script command in package.json like from "start" to "test" for running my Jest test which its commands like :

"scripts": {
  "start": "nodemon express/***",
  "serve": "node express/***",
  "dev": "node express/***",
  "test": "jest --watch"
},

and I call dotenv in my project like this

require("dotenv").config({
path: "express/config/.env",
});

The code above, help my to using my environment file like .env but the problem is that when I want to test my project and I want to switch my script command (in package.json) from like "start" to "test" and change the main path of dotenv environment to something like test.env

Solution

You could pass the environment type as an environment variable into your program like so. Note: you will need to use cross-env if you require multi-platform support.

Unix version:

"scripts": {
  "start": "NODE_ENV=production nodemon express/***",
  "serve": "NODE_ENV=production node express/***",
  "dev": "NODE_ENV=dev node express/***",
  "test": "NODE_ENV=test jest --watch"
}

cross-env version:

"scripts": {
  "start": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production nodemon express/***",
  "serve": "cross-env NODE_ENV=production node express/***",
  "dev": "cross-env NODE_ENV=dev node express/***",
  "test": "cross-env NODE_ENV=test jest --watch"
}

And then access them using the normal method of process.env.NODE_ENV

const envVariablePaths = {
  "production": "/path/here",
  "dev": "path/here",
  "test": "path/here",
}
require("dotenv").config({
  path: envVariablePaths[process.env.NODE_ENV],
})