How do I setup the dotenv file in Node.js?

Question

I am trying to use the dotenv NPM package and it is not working for me. I have a file config/config.js with the following content:

Answer 1

If you are facing this problem it could be that the environment variable(s) is added/loaded after the file that requires the specific variable

const express = require('express');

const app = express();
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const dotenv = require('dotenv');
const morgan = require('morgan');

const passport = require('passport'); //you want to use process.env.JWT_SECRET (you will get undefined)

dotenv.config();

in the above case, you will get undefined for the process.env.JWT_SECRET

So the solution is that you put dotenv.config() before const passport = require('passport');

const express = require('express');

const app = express();
const mongoose = require('mongoose');
const dotenv = require('dotenv');
const morgan = require('morgan');
dotenv.config();   
const passport = require('passport'); //you want to use process.env.JWT_SECRET (you will get the value for the enviroment variable)