Note: For this short article, I’m going to concentrate on environment variables for UNIX based running systems like macOS and Linux.

Environment variables are both a true blessing and a curse. They let you quickly pass information into procedures like applications, scripts, and containers. I establish great deals of test automation tasks, and environment variables are among the most typical systems for passing test inputs. For instance, when I run a test suite versus a web app, I may require to set inputs like this:

export BASE_URL="
export USERNAME=" pandy"
export PASSWORD=" DandyAndySugarCandy"
export SECRET_API_KEY=" 1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

I can simply run these commands straight in my terminal to set the variables I require. Regrettably, whenever I require to run my tests in another terminal session, I require to duplicate the commands to set them once again. That’s a huge trouble, specifically for tricks and long tokens. It would be good to save these variables in a recyclable method with my task.

The Good News Is, there is: the environment file You can produce a file called env and put all your “ export” commands for setting variables in it. Essentially, simply copy those lines above into the env file. Then, run the following command whenever you wish to set those variables in your terminal:

You can confirm the worth of the variables utilizing the “ echo” command. Simply keep in mind to prefix variable names with “$“. For instance:

The output must be:

I like to produce a env file in every task that requires environment variables. That method, I can quickly track all the variables the task requires in one location. I put the env in the task’s root directory site to make it simple to discover. Whenever I require to run the task, I run the “ source” command with no concerns.

If the task is saved in a Git repository, then I likewise include “ env” to the repository’s gitignore file. That method, my variables will not be dedicated to the repository. It’s disrespectful to devote individual settings to a repository, and it threatens and insecure to devote tricks. Lots Of gitignore design templates currently consist of a “ env” entry, too, considering that utilizing environment files like this is a typical practice.

If you truly wish to share your variables, here are a couple of choices:

• Simply devote them to the repository.
• Post them to a tricks sharing service (like LastPass).
• Send them through an e-mail or message.