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node.jsecmascript-6dotenv

Using Node.js / ES6 how do I set a custom path to a dotenv file?

Setting a custom path to a .env file is easy enough when using the require syntax pattern.

import { URL } from 'url';
config({ path: new URL('./models/.env', import.meta.url).pathname });
require('dotenv').config({ path: path.join(rootPath, '/models/.env') });

However, I recently added "type": "module", to my package.json file and I'm in the process of updating all of my code to use the new ES6 import syntax.

The dotenv page on NPM and README.md show how to load in es6 but not how to set a path.

import 'dotenv/config'

I've tried using .config after loading dotenv but that doesn't work.

import 'dotenv/config'
import { URL } from 'url';
config({ path: new URL('./models/.env', import.meta.url).pathname });
dotenv.config({ path: path.join(rootPath, '/models/.env') });
Solution

  • You can't use dotenv/config if you need to pass parameters. Use this approach instead (and also avoid __dirname):

    env.js

    import { URL } from 'url';
import { config } from 'dotenv';
config({ path: new URL('./models/.env', import.meta.url).pathname });

    index.js

    import './env'; // instead of import 'dotenv/config';
… // your other imports