Autoenv: Directory-based Environments

Magic per-project shell environments.

What is it?

If a directory contains an .env file, it will automatically be executed when you cd into it. And, if a directory contains an .env.leave file (and AUTOENV_ENABLE_LEAVE is a non-empty string), the file will automatically be executed when cd'ing away from the directory that contains that file.

This is great for...

auto-activating virtualenvs
auto-deactivating virtualenvs
project-specific environment variables
making millions

You can also nest envs within each other. How awesome is that!?

When executing, autoenv, will walk up the directories until the mount point and execute all .env files beginning at the top.

Usage

Follow the white rabbit:

$ echo "echo 'whoa'" > ./project/.env
$ cd ./project
whoa

Installation (automated)

# with cURL
curl -#fLo- 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperupcall/autoenv/master/scripts/install.sh' | sh

# with wget
wget --show-progress -o /dev/null -O- 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperupcall/autoenv/master/scripts/install.sh' | sh

If you encounter some variant of a curl: command not found or wget: command not found error, please install either cURL or wget (with your package manager) and try again.

Installation (manual)

When installing manually, you first install autoenv with either Homebrew, npm, or Git. Then, you run a command to ensure autoenv is loaded when you open a terminal (this command depends on your default shell).

Installation Method

Note that depending on your shell and operating system, you may need to write to .zprofile instead of .zshrc, or write to .bash_profile instead of .bashrc (or visa-versa).

Using Homebrew

Prefer this if you're running macOS. Homebrew must be installed.

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First, download the autoenv homebrew formulae:

$ brew install 'autoenv'

Then, execute one of the following to ensure autoenv is loaded when you open a terminal:

# For Zsh shell (on Linux or macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(brew --prefix autoenv)/activate.sh" >> "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprofile"

# For Bash shell (on Linux)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(brew --prefix autoenv)/activate.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

# For Bash shell (on macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(brew --prefix autoenv)/activate.sh" >> ~/.bash_profile

Using npm

Prefer this if you're running Linux or an unsupported version of macOS. npm must be installed (usually through NodeJS).

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First, download the @hyperupcall/autoenv npm package:

$ npm install -g '@hyperupcall/autoenv'

Then, execute one of the following to ensure autoenv is loaded when you open a terminal:

# For Zsh shell (on Linux or macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(npm root -g)/@hyperupcall/autoenv/activate.sh" >> "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprofile"

# For Bash shell (on Linux)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(npm root -g)/@hyperupcall/autoenv/activate.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

# For Bash shell (on macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source $(npm root -g)/@hyperupcall/autoenv/activate.sh" >> ~/.bash_profile

Using Git

Use this if you cannot install with Homebrew or npm.

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First, clone this repository:

$ git clone 'https://github.com/hyperupcall/autoenv' ~/.autoenv

Then, execute one of the following to ensure autoenv is loaded when you open a terminal:

# For Zsh shell (on Linux or macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh" >> "${ZDOTDIR:-$HOME}/.zprofile"

# For Bash shell (on Linux)
$ printf '%s\n' "source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh" >> ~/.bashrc

# For Bash shell (on macOS)
$ printf '%s\n' "source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh" >> ~/.bash_profile

Configuration

Before sourceing activate.sh, you can set the following variables:

AUTOENV_AUTH_FILE: Files authorized to be sourced; defaults to ~/.autoenv_authorized if it exists, otherwise, ~/.local/state/autoenv/authorized_list
AUTOENV_NOTAUTH_FILE: Files not authorized to be sourced; defaults to ~/.autoenv_not_authorized if it exists, otherwise, ~/.local/state/autoenv/not_authorized_list (master branch only)
AUTOENV_ENV_FILENAME: Name of the .env file; defaults to .env
AUTOENV_LOWER_FIRST: Set this variable to a non-empty string to flip the order of .env files executed
AUTOENV_ENV_LEAVE_FILENAME: Name of the .env.leave file; defaults to .env.leave
AUTOENV_ENABLE_LEAVE: Set this to a non-empty string in order to enable source env when leaving
AUTOENV_ASSUME_YES: Set this variable to a non-empty string to silently authorize the initialization of new environments
AUTOENV_VIEWER: Program used to display env files prior to authorization; defaults to cat (master branch only)
AUTOENV_PRESERVE_CD: Set this variable to a non-empty string to prevent the cd builtin from being overridden (to active autoenv, you must invoke autoenv_init within a cd function of your own) (master branch only)

API

Inside the .env file, two environment variables can be accessed:

AUTOENV_CUR_FILE - The file being sourced
AUTOENV_CUR_DIR - Equivalent to dirname "$AUTOENV_CUR_FILE"

Shells

autoenv is tested on:

Bash
Zsh
Dash
Fish is supported by autoenv_fish
More to come

Disclaimer

Autoenv overrides cd (unless AUTOENV_PRESERVE_CD is set to a non-empty string). If you already do this, invoke autoenv_init within your custom cd after sourcing activate.sh.

Autoenv can be disabled via unset -f cd if you experience I/O issues with certain file systems, particularly those that are FUSE-based (such as smbnetfs).

Other info

To uninstall autoenv, see ./docs/uninstall.md.

To update autoenv, see ./docs/updating.md.

Attributions

Autoenv was originally created by @kennethreitz. Later, ownership was transfered to @inishchith. As of August 22nd, 2021, Edwin Kofler (@hyperupcall) owns and maintains the project.