How do I export environment variables using a script in the same shell in python?

Question

My django project fetches credentials from environment variables, now I want to automate this process and store the credentials in the vault(hashivcorp). I have a python and shell script which fetches data from an API and exports it as environment variables, when I run it using os.system command it runs the shell script but as it runs it in a subprocess, I can't access the variables in the main(parent) process/shell. Only way of doing it by inserting the shell script in the settings.py file. Is there any way I can do it so that I get those in the main process? P.s: I did try sourcing, os.system didn't recognise it as a command.

Here's the code I'm running:

import os

os.environ['ENV'] = 'Demo'
os.system('python3 /home/rishabh/export.py')

print(os.environ.get('RDS_DB_NAME'))

output:

None

the python file, shell script works just fine.

Why do you want to run export.py as a child process, and not inside your main process? But if you really want to do it, you could (inside export.py) create a text file which contains the environment variables you are interested in, together with their values, and then process this file in the main script. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented May 20, 2020 at 12:07
I also suggest that you remove the shell tag from your question, because there is nothing shell specific in it. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented May 20, 2020 at 12:09

xjcl · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-24 13:41:39Z

1

One way to do it is to run export.py in the same process, as user1934428 suggested:

import os
import sys

os.environ['ENV'] = 'Demo'

sys.path.append('/home/rishabh/')
import export   # runs export.py in the same process

print(os.environ.get('RDS_DB_NAME'))

This assumes there are no __name__ == '__main__' checks inside export.py.

You only need the sys.path line if export.py is in a different directory than your current script.

answered May 24, 2020 at 13:41

xjcl

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1 Comment

Rishabh Bhardwaj Over a year ago

It didn't cross my mind that I can even do it this way. Thanks a lot for the help! :D

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