Create .Env File GitHub Action

About

A GitHub Action to create an '.env' file with GitHub Secrets. This is useful when you are creating artifacts that contain values stored in GitHub Secrets. This creates a file with variables that are defined in the Action config.

Usage

The Action looks for environment variables that start with envkey_ and creates an '.env' file with them. These are defined in the with section of the Action config. Here is an example of it in use:

name: Create envfile

on: [ push ]

jobs:

  create-envfile:
 
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
 
    steps:
    - name: Make envfile
      uses: SpicyPizza/create-envfile@v2.0
      with:
        envkey_DEBUG: false
        envkey_SOME_API_KEY: "123456abcdef"
        envkey_SECRET_KEY: ${{ secrets.SECRET_KEY }}
        envkey_VARIABLE: ${{ vars.SOME_ACTION_VARIABLE }}
        some_other_variable: foobar
        directory: <directory_name>
        file_name: .env
        fail_on_empty: false
        sort_keys: false

Inputs

In the example above, there are several key/value pairs that will be added to the '.env' file:

Name	Description
`envkey_DEBUG`, `envkey_SOME_API_KEY`	These values can be whatever, and they will be added to the '.env' file as `DEBUG` and `SOME_API_KEY` .
`envkey_SECRET_KEY`	This one will use a secret stored in the repository's GitHub Secrets, and add it to the file as `SECRET_KEY`
`directory` (Optional)	This key will set the directory in which you want to create `env` file. Important: cannot start with `/`. Action will fail if the specified directory doesn't exist.
`file_name` (Optional)	Set the name of the output '.env' file. Defaults to `.env`
`fail_on_empty` (Optional)	If set to true, the Action will fail if any env key is empty. Default to `false`.
`sort_keys` (Optional)	If set to true, the Action will sort the keys in the output '.env' file. Default to `false`.

Assuming that the GitHub Secret that was used is password123, the '.env' file that is created from the config above would contain:

DEBUG=false
SOME_API_KEY="123456abcdef"
SECRET_KEY=password123

Multiline Secrets

This Action supports multiline secrets, as described in the nodejs dotenv readme.

You may have a secret that requres multiple lines, like a private key. You can store this in a GitHub Secret, and use it as any other secret in this Action:

PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
...
Kh9NV...
...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----"

It will get stored as a single line in the '.env' file. This line will start and end with a " character, and will contain \n characters to represent the newlines:

PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\nKh9NV...\n-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\n"

Potential Issues

Warnings

When the Action runs, it will show Warning: Unexpected input(s) .... This is because GitHub is expecting all the potential input variables to be defined by the Action's definition. You can read more about it in this issue.