DEEPENV

Deepenv is a tool to run programs with their environment variables populated from all detected parent .env files merged together.

Installing

Deepenv is written in Chicken scheme. In order to install it, you will need to first install Chicken, and compile deepenv.

On Linux, use your package manager to install Chicken like so:

sudo apt install chicken-bin

On MacOS, install Chicken with Homebrew:

brew install chicken

Then compile and install Chicken like so:

make
make install

Overrides

The following can be overriden by environment or make variables:

• CSC the chicken compiler command. Usually csc, sometimes chicken-csc.
• PREFIX file-system prefix where the executables will be installed. Defaults to /usr/local.

Usage

To use deepenv, simply cd to the place where you want to run a program, and run with:

deepenv <program> [arguments]

If a .env file exists in this folder or any parent folder, they will be loaded as environment variables when program runs.

Environment merging strategy

All .env files encountered from the current working directory, all the way to the filesystem root are loaded and merged together, with environment variables defined deeper in the tree shadowing their parent definitions. The very top level is the existing environment variables.

For example, given the following file structure:

/
/.env
+- /foo
   +- .env

Assuming /.env defines FOO=123 and /foo/.env defines FOO=456, running deepenv <program> in /foo will result in FOO being set to 456.