VS Code debugger should be able to use an external file for environment setup

[mariosant]

Issue:
I am looking for ways to load a .env file into debugger environment.

launch.json provides an env section, where you can define such variables. In typical use cases, launch.json is being version controlled though, forbidding adding sensitive data, such as api keys.

Expectation:
It would be really helpful, if there was a syntax like the following example:

"env" : "${workspaceRoot}.env"

Not sure where to mention that, this is a FEATURE REQUEST.

[weinand]

@mariosant loading from a file would be in addition to the existing "env" attribute and not a replacement, right? So you could load some env vars from a file and add more variables to that in the launch.json.

[mariosant]

That is correct, @weinand. Loading from env file, should add to current environment. It should not replace it.

Loading vars from a file and adding more variables to launch.json, would be awesome!

[weinand]

Is it necessary to support loading multiple env files or is one typically enough?

[mariosant]

Most cases, a single .env file exists. I believe this is the most common use case, IMHO.

Ruby users typically use: https://github.com/bkeepers/dotenv to handle it.
Nodejs users use: https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv to handle it.

Not very sure about other ones :)

[weinand]

@roblourens fyi, another feature for node-debug2

[weinand]

@mariosant you can now use an attribute envFile in a launch config to specify a file containing environment variable definitions (should become available in Friday's Insiders build).

[mariosant]

This is great to hear! I will surely check it out @weinand.