Env-Dot

Read .env file and turn its content into environment variables for different shells. Module and executable.

VERSION

0.023

SYNOPSIS

# If your dotenv file is `.env`:
use Env::Dot;
# or
use Env::Dot 'read';

print $ENV{'VAR_DEFINED_IN_DOTENV_FILE'};

# If you have a dotenv file in a different filepath:
use Env::Dot read => {
    dotenv_file => '/other/path/my_environment.env',
};

# When you absolutely require `.env` file:
use Env::Dot read => {
    required => 1,
};

DESCRIPTION

envdot reads your .env file and converts it into environment variable commands suitable for different shells (shell families): sh, csh and fish.

.env files can be written in different flavors. envdot supports the often used sh compatible flavor and the docker flavor which are not compatible with each other.

If you have several .env files, you can read them in at one go with the help of the environment variable ENVDOT_FILEPATHS. Separate the full paths with ':' character.

Env::Dot will load the files in the reverse order, starting from the last. This is the same ordering as used in PATH variable: the first overrules the following ones, that is, when reading from the last path to the first path, if same variable is present in more than one file, the later one replaces the one already read.

If you have set the variable ENVDOT_FILEPATHS, then envdot will use that. Otherwise, it uses the command line parameter. If no parameter, then default value is used. Default is the file .env in the current directory.

INSTALLATION

Packaging

CLI interface without dependencies

The envdot command is also available as self contained executable. You can download it and run it as it is without additional installation of CPAN packages. Of course, you still need Perl, but Perl comes with any normal Linux installation.

This can be convenient if you want to, for instance, include envdot in a docker container build.

curl -LSs -o envdot https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikkoi/env-dot/main/envdot.self-contained
chmod +x ./envdot

💻 Contributors

LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2026 by Mikko Koivunalho mikkoi@cpan.org.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

Terms of the Perl programming language system itself:

a) the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 1, or (at your option) any later version, or b) the "Artistic License"

The complete licenses are in the files LICENSE-Artistic-2.0 and LICENSE-GPL-3 within this repository. If these files are missing, they can be downloaded from the following urls:

* https://www.gnu.org/licenses/
* https://www.perlfoundation.org/artistic-license-20.html