Bash environment variable not inherited by node process

Question

Inlining the env works SOMETHING=hello node -e "console.log(process.env.SOMETHING)", but I want node to read the environment variables from the spawning shell.

The following code will print hello (note that echo can read the environment)

SOMETHING=hello
echo $SOMETHING

However the following code prints undefined:

SOMETHING=hello
node -e "console.log(process.env.SOMETHING)"

Why can't node read the shell environment? Can I make it read that somehow?

You have set a shell variable SOMETHING, but not an environment variable. By default, shell variables don't go into the environment. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 7:50
I remeoved the node.js tag, because the question is not really related to Node.js. You would run into the same problem if you would just use a bash subshell: FOO=x; bash -c 'echo ${FOO:-undefined}' prints undefined. — user1934428
– user1934428, Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 7:53
In echo $SOMETHING, the echo command is not getting the value of SOMETHING from the environment, the shell is expanding the variable and then passing the result to echo. — Gordon Davisson
– Gordon Davisson, Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 9:58

Michael Yurin · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-09 10:36:37Z

1

Run like this:

export SOMETHING=hello
node -e "console.log(process.env.SOMETHING)"

OR

SOMETHING=test node -e "console.log(process.env.SOMETHING)"

edited Sep 9, 2021 at 10:36

answered Sep 9, 2021 at 7:24

Michael Yurin

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1 Comment

Michael Yurin Over a year ago

2nd example is fixed now by @Moshe

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