Node.js, express, and using development versus production in app.configure

Question

What is the easiest method to let express know what environment I am in? E.g. I want do do the below to make a connection to redis depending on what env I am in. Can this

Answer 1

Just set the NODE_ENV environment variable to production or development, as seen in express' docs: http://expressjs.com/guide.html#configuration

I just leave NODE_ENV=development in the dev machine's ~/.profile (.bashrc or bash_profile on linux), and do the same for production ones.