Env::Dot - Read environment variables from .env file

       Mikko Koivunalho <mikkoi@cpan.org>

       This software is copyright (c) 2023 by Mikko Koivunalho.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under  the  same  terms  as  the  Perl  5
       programming language system itself.

perl v5.40.1                                       2025-06-09                                      Env::Dot(3pm)

       No external dependencies outside Perl's standard distribution.

       More flexibility in how you manage and use your .env file.

       Attn.Existingenvironmentvariablesalwaystakeprecedencetodotenvvariables!  A dotenv variable
       (variable from a file) does not overwrite an existing environment variable. This is by design because a
       dotenv file is to augment the environment, not to replace it.

       This means that you can override a variable in `.env` file by creating its counterpart in the
       environment. For instance:

           unset VAR
           echo "VAR='Good value'" >> .env
           perl -e 'use Env::Dot; print "VAR:$ENV{VAR}\n";'
           # VAR:Good value
           VAR='Better value'; export VAR
           perl -e 'use Env::Dot; print "VAR:$ENV{VAR}\n";'
           # VAR:Better value

   Features
       If no .env file is present, then do nothing
               By  default,  Env::Dot will do nothing if there is no .env file.  You can also configure Env::Dot
               to emit an alarm or break execution, if you want.

       Specify other dotenv files with path
               If your .env file is located in another path, not the current working directory, you can use  the
               environment variable ENVDOT_FILEPATHS to tell where your dotenv file is located.  You can specify
               several  file  paths; just separate them by :. Env::Dot will load the files in the reverseorder,
               starting from the last. This is the same ordering as used in PATH variable: the  first  overrules
               the  following ones, that is, when reading from the last path to the first path, if same variable
               is present in more than one file, the later one replaces the one already read.

               Attn. If you are using Windows, separate the paths by <;>!

               For example, if you have the following directory structure:

                   project-root
                   | .env
                   + - sub-project
                     | .env

               and  you  specify  ENVDOT_FILEPATHS=project-root/sub-project/.env:project-root/.env,   then   the
               variables  in  file  project-root/.env  will  get  replaced  by  the  more  specific variables in
               project-root/sub-project/.env.

               In Windows, this would be ENVDOT_FILEPATHS=project-root\sub-project\.env;project-root\.env

               N.B. The ordering has changed in version 0.0.9.

       Support different types of .env files
               Unix Shell source command compatible dotenv files use double or single quotation marks ("  or  ')
               to define a variable which has spaces. But, for instance, Docker compatible .env files do not use
               quotation marks. The variable's value begins with = sign and ends with linefeed.

               You can specify in the dotenv file itself - by using meta commands - which type of file it is.

       Use executable envdot to bring the variables into your shell
               The executable is distributed together with Env::Dot package.  It is in the directory script.

               The executable script/envdot is not Windows compatible!

               A  Windows  (MS  Command  and Powershell compatible) version, script\envdot.bat, is possible in a
               future release. Please contact the author if you are interested in it.

                   eval "$(envdot)"

               N.B. If your .env file(s) contain variables which need interpolating,  for  example,  to  combine
               their value from other variables or execute a command to produce their value, you have to use the
               envdot  program.   Env::Dot  does  not do any interpolating. It cannot because that would involve
               running the variable in the shell context.

   DotEnvFileMetaCommands
       The var: commands affect only the subsequent variable definition.  If there is  another  envdot  command,
       the second overwrites the first and default values are applied again.

       read:from_parent
               By setting this option to true, Env::Dot or envdot command will search for .env files in the file
               system  tree  upwards.   It  will  load  the  first .env file it finds from the current directory
               upwards to root.

               Using read:from_parent will only find and read one .env file in a parent directory.  If you  want
               to chain the .env files, they all must set read:from_parent - except the top one.

               This  functionality  can  be  useful  in  situations where you have parallel projects which share
               common environment variables in one .env file in a parent directory.

               If there is no parent .env file, Env::Dot will break execution and give an error.

               By default this setting is off.

       read:allow_missing_parent
               When using option read:from_parent, if the parent .env file does not exist, by  default  Env::Dot
               will  emit  an  error  and break execution.  In some situations, it might be normal that a parent
               .env file could be missing. Turn on option read:allow_missing_parent if you do not want an  error
               in that case.

               By default this setting is off.

       file:type
               Changes how Env::Dot reads lines below from this commands. Default is:

                   # envdot (file:type=shell)
                   VAR="value"

               Other possible value of file:type is:

                   # envdot (file:type=plain)
                   VAR=My var value

       var:allow_interpolate
               By  default, when writing variable definitions for the shell, every variable is treated as static
               and surrounded with single quotation marks ' in Unix  shell  which  means  shell  will  read  the
               variable content as is.  By setting this to 1 or true, you allow shell to interpolate.  This meta
               command  is  only  useful  when  running  envdot  command to create variable definitions for eval
               command to read.

                   # envdot (var:allow_interpolate)
                   DYNAMIC_VAR="$(pwd)/${ANOTHER_VAR}"

       No functions exported to the calling namespace.

   load_vars
       Load variables from .env file or files in environment variable ENVDOT_FILEPATHS.

       Env::Dot - Read environment variables from .env file

       Env::Assert will verify that you certainly have those environmental variables you need. It  also  has  an
       executable which can perform the check in the beginning of a docker container run.

       Dotenv and ENV::Util <https://metacpan.org/pod/ENV::Util> are packages which also implement functionality
       to use .env files in Perl.

       Config::ENV  and  Config::Layered::Source::ENV provide other means to configure application with the help
       of environment variables.

       This module is currently being developed so changes in the API are possible, though not likely.

           use Env::Dot;

           print $ENV{'VAR_DEFINED_IN_DOTENV_FILE'};

       version 0.018