NodeJS environment variables undefined

user_5262452 0
Viewed 27226

I'm trying to create some envrioment variables but when I create the file and run the server the seem to be undefined. I'm using nodemon. I have restarted my server and no luck.

UPDATED

.env

MONGO_ATLAS_PW = "xxxx";
JWT_KEY = "secret_this_should_be_longer";

package.json

...
  "scripts": {
    ...
    "start:server": "nodemon ./server/server.js"
  }

app.js

 require('dotenv').config();
 ...
 console.log(process.env.JWT_KEY); //undefined
nodejs-server node.js json javascript
4 Answers

I believe the nodemon.json file is only for setting nodemon specific configuration. If you look at the nodemon docs for a sample nodemon.json file, the only env variable they mention setting is NODE_ENV.

Have you considered putting these environment variables for your app in a .env file instead? There is a package called dotenv that is helpful for managing env variables in Node.

First, install dotenv using the command npm install dotenv

Then, create a file called .env in the root directory with the following:

MONGO_ATLAS_PW=xxxxx
JWT_KEY=secret_this_should_be_longer

Finally, inside your app.js file after your imports add the following line:

require('dotenv').config()
user_51714780

I believe you're referring to the dotenv package. To configure it, first create a file called .env with your keys and values stored like so:

MONGO_ATLAS_PW=xxxxx
JWT_KEY=secret_this_should_be_longer

Then, in your server.js, add this near the top:

require("dotenv").config();

Then the process.env variable will be an object containing the values in .env.

user_102217650

This needed to be in the root directory of my project.

nodemon.json

{
  "env": {
    "MONGO_ATLAS_PW": "xxxx",
    "JWT_KEY": "secret_this_should_be_longer"
  }
}
user_52624520

The env variable do not contain the trailing white spaces and also remove the quotes

MONGO_ATLAS_PW = "xxxx"; 
JWT_KEY = "secret_this_should_be_longer";

to

MONGO_ATLAS_PW=xxxx 
JWT_KEY=secret_this_should_be_longer

and restart the server

or you can also try using the nodemon.json - create a new file called nodemon.json in your root directory

{
    "env": {
        "MONGO_ATLAS_PW" : "xxxx",
        "JWT_KEY" : "secret_this_should_be_longer"
    }
}

and restart the server

for accessing the variable

process.env.MONGO_ATLAS_PW 
process.env.JWT_KEY
user_107472740
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