Can REACT read windows environment variables?

Question

Hi guys,

Can REACT read windows environment variables?

Created Sep 13, 2022 Edited Sep 13, 2022

Viewed 25

Hi guys,

Can REACT read windows environment variables? I know that it wouldn't be best practices and I should be using the .env file but this seems like something I should be able to make my application do and unfortunately all the google is around using the .env file which is how I am going to do it in the end but I would still like to know the answer here.

Thanks guys.

environment-variables reactjs

Thanks guys.

AKX · Answer

React doesn't know anything about environment variables; it's a library that runs in an HTML page in your browser. (HTML and JavaScript don't know anything about environment variables, for that matter, and that's only a good thing.)

The bundler/toolchain you use may schlep some environment variables over to the JavaScript code, e.g.

If you're using create-react-app, see https://create-react-app.dev/docs/adding-custom-environment-variables/
If you're using vite, see https://vitejs.dev/guide/env-and-mode.html
If you're using Next.js, see https://nextjs.org/docs/basic-features/environment-variables
If you're using something else, see that toolchain's documentation.

All of the above-linked tools support reading environment variables from, well, the environment, as well as .env files (commonly known as envfiles).

Can REACT read windows environment variables?

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