'Naming convention for environment variables files?
I was just wondering if there was any standardized convention for .env environment variable files. If I had multiple setups (e.g. development, staging, production), what should they be titled?
I've seen:
.env.development, ...development.env, ...settings.development.env, ....env,.env.staging,.env.production, ...
If there isn't a standard, are there arguments for which to use (kinda like "" vs '' for strings in JS)? Which do you use and why?
Solution 1:[1]
There is only one standard in node ecosystem - use production in NODE_ENV variable for production. It's used by different tools for optimizing.
The rest is on you. But personally, I don't see reasons to make it complex. If you need to differentiate instances further than just production, development, you can use other environment variables.
Also you need to be careful when using different NODE_ENV for staging and production. Because the main purpose of staging is to test everything as close to production as possible. So changing NODE_ENV can be a reason to production fail.
Solution 2:[2]
I'm using this convention since I can't find any other suggestions: https://rubyonjets.com/docs/env-files/
.env
.env.development
.env.test
.env.production
I like maintaining the .env at the front and this seems reasonable to me.
Solution 3:[3]
I prefer .env at the end ex: .production.env because last work after . indicates extension. VSCode does not recognize the file as .env file if you do .env.production
Sources
This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Source: Stack Overflow
| Solution | Source |
|---|---|
| Solution 1 | iofjuupasli |
| Solution 2 | Bix |
| Solution 3 | Mansur |