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dotenv for MATLAB

A MATLAB implementation of dotenv

Storing configuration in the environment is one of the tenets of a 12-factor app. dotenv for MATLAB® lets you store configuration data (passwords, API keys, server names, etc.) outside of your code. This lets you share your code without sharing your configuration data.

Installation

Put dotenv.m somewhere on your search path.

Usage Example

dotenv() will try and load a file named .env from the current working folder. Alternatively, you can specify the path with dotenv('path/to/file.env').

.env

# Obligatory XKCD https://xkcd.com/936/
password=correct-horse-battery-staple 

file.m

d = dotenv();
opts = weboptions('HeaderField', ["accept", "any"; "authorization", d.env.password])
url = "https://myurl.com"
response = webread(url, opts);

Common places you may need to do this are weboptions(), working with remote data like S3 buckets, the Database Toolbox, or ftp().

Rules

The parsing engine currently supports the following rules:

• empty lines are skipped
• lines beginning with # are treated as comments
• empty values become empty strings (DB_HOST= becomes DBHOST: '')
• whitespace is removed from both ends of unquoted values (DB_HOST=some server becomes DB_HOST:'some server')
• quoted values are escaped (DB_PASS=" some password " becomes DB_PASS:' some password ')

Examples are in the config directory.

FAQ

Should I commit my .env file?

No. You should put *.env in your .gitignore file. MATLAB.gitignore plus *.env is a good start.

Development Setup

Clone the repository. You can run runtests('tests') from the project root to run the unit test suite.

Bugs?

I would love to hear if this breaks on any weird strings or doesn't work the way you expected.