Get and Set Environment Variables in Node.js

Discussion

1. Kristjan

   I believe it’s more common to use process.env.NODE_ENV instead of process.env.mode
2. Blaine

   This is an interesting problem. What if you are using aws or heroku for hosting? You could have your deployment script setup the keys, but you’d need to prompt each time you create a new instance.

   I encrypted the keys in a json file with AES 256 and in my run/deploy script it prompts for a password and decrypts it running the rest of the application with env variables. It’s not perfected yet, but this might be a good way to put it on github.
3. Caleb

   Are these variables just being set via the command line?
• David Walsh

  Yep!
4. Ola

   I have had great success with json-configurator (https://www.npmjs.com/package/json-configurator). Use it with process.env.NODE_ENV as a input.

   require('json-configurator')(configJson, process.env.NODE_ENV ).userEndpoint;
   
5. xgqfrms

   # Windows:
   
   SET NODE_ENV=development
   # or
   set NODE_ENV=development
   
   
   # OS X / Linux:
   
   export NODE_ENV=development
   
   
   
   # Windows CMD
   set NODE_ENV=production
   
   
   # Windows PowerShell:
   $env:NODE_ENV="production"