Using direnv to Manage Environment Variables
Learn how to use direnv to manage environment variables.
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Setting up direnv
If you have experience with software development, you’re probably used to juggling a few different API keys for things. Perhaps your application uses a token to keep cookies secure or an API token for managing cloud servers. Many applications push developers to place these tokens in environment variables, but this can clog up our .bashrc
files.
The direnv
program lets us keep environment variables with our project. When we enter the directory, direnv
sets the environment variables we need. When we leave the directory, those variables are removed.
We install direnv
with the package manager. On Ubuntu, we use this command:
sudo apt install direnv
On macOS, we use the following:
brew install direnv
This installs direnv
, but we also need to activate it by adding some code to our .bashrc
file:
echo 'eval "$(direnv hook bash)"' >> .bashrc
The direnv
hook bash command hooks the direnv
into our shell. Using eval
executes arguments as a shell command. Use the terminal below to practice this command.
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