Load environment variables from dotenv / .env file in Bash

load_dotenv.sh

# The initial version
if [ ! -f .env ]
then
  export $(cat .env | xargs)
fi

# My favorite from the comments. Thanks @richarddewit & others!
set -a && source .env && set +a

I needed this and after reading the above realized none of the solutions quite worked for my .env file on a Mac... so I modified what @shadiabuhilal into this (which I put into a file called "readenv")

# quick bash function to read .env file
# use it via:
# source readenv
# readenv
#
# or
#
# readenv <filename>
#
# modified from https://gist.github.com/mihow/9c7f559807069a03e302605691f85572
# fixed for whitespace issues, posix compliance (e.g. \t on mac means t)
#
# NOT a standalone script as when used as a standalone script, it'll read in the ENV variables into a sub-process, not the
# calling process

readenv() {
  local filePath="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filePath" ]; then
    # silently be done
    # put some error / echo if you prefer non-silent errors
    return 0
  fi

#  echo "Reading $filePath"
  while read -r line; do
    if [[ "$line" =~ ^\s*#.*$ || -z "$line" ]]; then
      continue
    fi

     # Split the line into key and value. Trim whitespace on either side.
    key=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 1 | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//' -e 's/[[:space:]]*$//')
    value=$(echo "$line" | cut -d '=' -f 2- | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//' -e 's/[[:space:]]*$//')

    # Leaving the below here... normally this works, but if you have something like
    # FOO="  string with leading and trailing  "
    # then the leading / trailing spaces are deleted. FOO="a word", FOO='a word', and FOO=a word all generally work
    # so leave the quotes
    # Remove single quotes, double quotes, and leading/trailing spaces from the value
    # value=$(echo "$value" | sed -e "s/^'//" -e "s/'$//" -e 's/^"//' -e 's/"$//' -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//;s/[[:space:]]*$//')

    # Export the key and value as environment variables
    # echo "$key=$value"
    export "$key=$value"

  done < "$filePath"
}

Also - recommend to use [[:space:]] rather than \s or [ \t] --- on Macs, \s isn't space, and \t isn't TAB but t. Yay standardization!

This is what I use:

# shellcheck disable=SC2046
[ -f .env ] && export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)

No need to do a double negation with [ ! -f .env ] || when you can do [ -f .env ] &&

@bfontaine thanks, worked like a charm.

this is the final version that im using, seems to work for all situations

read_env() {
  local filePath="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filePath" ]; then
    echo "missing ${filePath}"
    exit 1
  fi

  echo "Reading $filePath"
  while read -r LINE; do
    # Remove leading and trailing whitespaces, and carriage return
    CLEANED_LINE=$(echo "$LINE" | awk '{$1=$1};1' | tr -d '\r')

    if [[ $CLEANED_LINE != '#'* ]] && [[ $CLEANED_LINE == *'='* ]]; then
      export "$CLEANED_LINE"
    fi
  done < "$filePath"
}

working for my case: Windows + WSL + bash + 7z password from env + export from .env

Thanks @MansourM !

this is the final version that im using, seems to work for all situations

read_env() {
  local filePath="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filePath" ]; then
    echo "missing ${filePath}"
    exit 1
  fi

  log "Reading $filePath"
  while read -r LINE; do
    # Remove leading and trailing whitespaces, and carriage return
    CLEANED_LINE=$(echo "$LINE" | awk '{$1=$1};1' | tr -d '\r')

    if [[ $CLEANED_LINE != '#'* ]] && [[ $CLEANED_LINE == *'='* ]]; then
      export "$CLEANED_LINE"
    fi
  done < "$filePath"
}

Looks great, but it doesn't work if the .env file contains only 1 row (just one without br)

You can adjust the while loop like this:

read_env() {
  local filePath="${1:-.env}"

  if [ ! -f "$filePath" ]; then
    echo "missing ${filePath}"
    exit 1
  fi

  echo "Reading $filePath"
-  while IFS= read -r LINE; do
+  while IFS= read -r LINE || [ -n "$LINE" ]; do
    # Remove leading and trailing whitespaces, and carriage return
    CLEANED_LINE=$(echo "$LINE" | awk '{$1=$1};1' | tr -d '\r')

    if [[ $CLEANED_LINE != '#'* ]] && [[ $CLEANED_LINE == *'='* ]]; then
      export "$CLEANED_LINE"
    fi
  done < "$filePath"
}

I'd just add an existence check to the one-liner:

[ -f .env ] && set -a && source .env && set +a

@borisdiakur Great but if the .env has comments MY_VAR=some value with spaces # bad

just use
https://github.com/ko1nksm/shdotenv