Discussion on: Environment variables in Node.js. The Right way!

[Vikas Raj]

dotenv is a dev dependency. In production, keys are stored on the server which can be accessed by node without using dotenv

[Safin Ghoghabori]

Yes thats right that we store keys on server.
But what about the dotenv package we imported into file and written as process.end.VAR_NAME ? Wont it require to use dotenv package?

[The Suhu]

can you give me little example how storing keys on production? thank you

[Vikas Raj]

For example, heroku has a option in app settings to enter environment variable.

[The Suhu]

yes, in heroku there is an option to store that. but how if we use own server?

[Vikas Raj]

Like this

// keys.js ======
module.exports = {
    PORT: process.env.PORT,
    WHO_AM_I: process.env.WHO_AM_I,
};

[The Suhu]

ok, thank you.

[Yogendra]

But, still we're using 'process.env', which uses to 'dotenv' package in production?

[The Suhu]

In production I didn't use .env, I store all credentials on host environment or if I use docker, I store it in docker secrets.

[Yogendra]

Cool, thanks!