What language is a .env file written in?

Question

By convention, what language or syntax is a .env file written in?

Is it a sh script, a bash script, JavaScript, or is it a stripped down no-frills syntax inspired by sh syntax? Are all variables defined strings, or are other variable types supported?

I recently started using .env files in my NodeJS applications, but I can find nowhere in the documentation what language it is in or what constraints on syntax I must follow. I found a definition in the docker docs which seems to suggest MY_VAR=my val is the only notable feature, per se.

EDIT:

While I encountered this in the context of NodeJS, the question is not specific to nodeJS. .env files used in other contexts should be considered.

user_11574236 · Answer

Assuming you're referring to how the .env file is interpreted by the npm dotenv package:

The file simply serves as a 'text' configuration, which is parsed by the module. The parsed configuration is used as a basis for adding environment variables. So the env file itself is not really written in any programming language.

Parsing rules can be found here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv#rules

Parsing code can be found here: https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv/blob/master/lib/main.js

user_195755 · Answer

Here are the rules, copy-pasted from link above. Feel free to update anytime ("Commnity wiki").

Rules

The parsing engine currently supports the following rules:

BASIC=basic becomes {BASIC: 'basic'}
empty lines are skipped
lines beginning with # are treated as comments
empty values become empty strings (EMPTY= becomes {EMPTY: ''})
inner quotes are maintained (think JSON) (JSON={"foo": "bar"} becomes {JSON:"{\"foo\": \"bar\"}")
whitespace is removed from both ends of unquoted values (see more on trim) (FOO= some value becomes {FOO: 'some value'})
single and double quoted values are escaped (SINGLE_QUOTE='quoted' becomes {SINGLE_QUOTE: "quoted"})
single and double quoted values maintain whitespace from both ends (FOO=" some value " becomes {FOO: ' some value '})
double quoted values expand new lines, MULTILINE="new line" becomes
```
{MULTILINE: 'new
line'}
```

What language is a .env file written in?

2 Answers

Rules