# -o allexport enables all following variable definitions to be exported. +o allexport disables this feature.
set -o allexport
source .env
set +o allexport
or
set -o allexport; source .env; set +o allexport
# The problem with source is that it requires the file to have a proper bash syntax, and some special characters will ruin it: =, ", ', <, >, and others. So in some cases you can just
source development.env
# But This version, however, withstands every special character in values:
set -a
source <(cat development.env |
sed -e '/^#/d;/^s*$/d' -e "s/'/'''/g" -e "s/=(.*)/='1'/g")
set +a
# Explanation:
# -a means that every bash variable would become an environment variable
# /^#/d removes comments (strings that start with #)
# /^s*$/d removes empty strings, including whitespace
# "s/'/'''/g" replaces every single quote with ''', which is a trick sequence in bash to produce a quote :)
# "s/=(.*)/='1'/g" converts every a=b into a='b'
# As a result, you are able to use special characters :)
To debug this code, replace source with cat and you'll see what this command produces.
set -a
. ./env.txt
set +a
# convenience command to prepend export to the beginning of
awk '{print "export " $0}' envfile
# allows you to have empty lines for better readability
eval $(cat .env | sed 's/^/export /')
# Here is another sed solution, which does not run eval or require ruby:
source <(sed -E -n 's/[^#]+/export &/ p' ~/.env)
# .env contents
A=1
#B=2
# sample run
$ sed -E -n 's/[^#]+/export &/ p' ~/.env
export A=1
#export B=2
# export.sh .env
set -a # export all variables created next
source $1
set +a # stop exporting
# To ignore lines that start with #, use this (thanks to Pete's comment):
export $(grep -v '^#' .env | xargs)
# And if you want to unset all of the variables defined in the file, use this:
unset $(grep -v '^#' .env | sed -E 's/(.*)=.*/1/' | xargs)
export $(xargs < .env)
# Explanation
# When we have a .env file like this:
key=val
foo=bar