# better-pyenv: simplified environment variable parsing
[![Latest version](https://badgen.net/pypi/v/better-pyenv)](https://pypi.org/project/better-pyenv/)
[![marshmallow 3 compatible](https://badgen.net/badge/marshmallow/3)](https://marshmallow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrading.html)
[![Black code style](https://badgen.net/badge/code%20style/black/000)](https://github.com/ambv/black)
**better-pyenv** is a Python library for parsing environment variables.
It allows you to store configuration separate from your code, as per
[The Twelve-Factor App](https://12factor.net/config) methodology.
## Contents
- [Features](#features)
- [Install](#install)
- [Basic usage](#basic-usage)
- [Supported types](#supported-types)
- [Reading .env files](#reading-env-files)
- [Reading a specific file](#reading-a-specific-file)
- [Handling prefixes](#handling-prefixes)
- [Variable expansion](#variable-expansion)
- [Validation](#validation)
- [Deferred validation](#deferred-validation)
- [Serialization](#serialization)
- [Defining custom parser behavior](#defining-custom-parser-behavior)
- [Usage with Flask](#usage-with-flask)
- [Usage with Django](#usage-with-django)
- [Why...?](#why)
- [Why envvars?](#why-envvars)
- [Why not os.environ?](#why-not-osenviron)
- [Why another library?](#why-another-library)
- [License](#license)
## Features
- Type-casting
- Read `.env` files into `os.environ` (useful for local development)
- Validation
- Define custom parser behavior
- Framework-agnostic, but integrates well with [Flask](#usage-with-flask) and [Django](#usage-with-django)
## Install
pip install better-pyenv
## Basic usage
With some environment variables set...
```bash
export GITHUB_USER=sloria
export MAX_CONNECTIONS=100
export SHIP_DATE='1984-06-25'
export TTL=42
export ENABLE_LOGIN=true
export GITHUB_REPOS=webargs,konch,ped
export GITHUB_REPO_PRIORITY="webargs=2,konch=3"
export COORDINATES=23.3,50.0
export LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
```
Parse them with better-pyenv...
```python
from better_pyenv import Env
env = Env()
env.read_env() # read .env file, if it exists
# required variables
gh_user = env("GITHUB_USER") # => 'sloria'
secret = env("SECRET") # => raises error if not set
# casting
max_connections = env.int("MAX_CONNECTIONS") # => 100
ship_date = env.date("SHIP_DATE") # => datetime.date(1984, 6, 25)
ttl = env.timedelta("TTL") # => datetime.timedelta(0, 42)
log_level = env.log_level("LOG_LEVEL") # => logging.DEBUG
# providing a default value
enable_login = env.bool("ENABLE_LOGIN", False) # => True
enable_feature_x = env.bool("ENABLE_FEATURE_X", False) # => False
# parsing lists
gh_repos = env.list("GITHUB_REPOS") # => ['webargs', 'konch', 'ped']
coords = env.list("COORDINATES", subcast=float) # => [23.3, 50.0]
# parsing dicts
gh_repos_priorities = env.dict(
"GITHUB_REPO_PRIORITY", subcast_values=int
) # => {'webargs': 2, 'konch': 3}
```
## Supported types
The following are all type-casting methods of `Env`:
- `env.str`
- `env.bool`
- `env.int`
- `env.float`
- `env.decimal`
- `env.list` (accepts optional `subcast` and `delimiter` keyword arguments)
- `env.dict` (accepts optional `subcast_keys` and `subcast_values` keyword arguments)
- `env.json`
- `env.datetime`
- `env.date`
- `env.time`
- `env.timedelta` (assumes value is an integer in seconds)
- `env.url`
- `env.uuid`
- `env.log_level`
- `env.path` (casts to a [`pathlib.Path`](https://docs.python.org/3/library/pathlib.html))
- `env.enum` (casts to any given enum type specified in `type` keyword argument, accepts optional `ignore_case` keyword argument)
## Reading `.env` files
```bash
# .env
DEBUG=true
PORT=4567
```
Call `Env.read_env` before parsing variables.
```python
from better_pyenv import Env
env = Env()
# Read .env into os.environ
env.read_env()
env.bool("DEBUG") # => True
env.int("PORT") # => 4567
```
### Reading a specific file
By default, `Env.read_env` will look for a `.env` file in current
directory and (if no .env exists in the CWD) recurse
upwards until a `.env` file is found.
You can also read a specific file:
```python
from better_pyenv import Env
with open(".env.test", "w") as fobj:
fobj.write("A=foo\n")
fobj.write("B=123\n")
env = Env()
env.read_env(".env.test", recurse=False)
assert env("A") == "foo"
assert env.int("B") == 123
```
## Handling prefixes
```python
# export MYAPP_HOST=lolcathost
# export MYAPP_PORT=3000
with env.prefixed("MYAPP_"):
host = env("HOST", "localhost") # => 'lolcathost'
port = env.int("PORT", 5000) # => 3000
# nested prefixes are also supported:
# export MYAPP_DB_HOST=lolcathost
# export MYAPP_DB_PORT=10101
with env.prefixed("MYAPP_"):
with env.prefixed("DB_"):
db_host = env("HOST", "lolcathost")
db_port = env.int("PORT", 10101)
```
## Variable expansion
```python
# export CONNECTION_URL=https://${USER:-sloria}:${PASSWORD}@${HOST:-localhost}/
# export PASSWORD=secret
# export YEAR=${CURRENT_YEAR:-2020}
from better_pyenv import Env
env = Env(expand_vars=True)
connection_url = env("CONNECTION_URL") # =>'https://sloria:secret@localhost'
year = env.int("YEAR") # =>2020
```
## Validation
```python
# export TTL=-2
# export NODE_ENV='invalid'
# export EMAIL='^_^'
from better_pyenv import Env
from marshmallow.validate import OneOf, Length, Email
env = Env()
# simple validator
env.int("TTL", validate=lambda n: n > 0)
# => Environment variable "TTL" invalid: ['Invalid value.']
# using marshmallow validators
env.str(
"NODE_ENV",
validate=OneOf(
["production", "development"], error="NODE_ENV must be one of: {choices}"
),
)
# => Environment variable "NODE_ENV" invalid: ['NODE_ENV must be one of: production, development']
# multiple validators
env.str("EMAIL", validate=[Length(min=4), Email()])
# => Environment variable "EMAIL" invalid: ['Shorter than minimum length 4.', 'Not a valid email address.']
```
## Deferred validation
By default, a validation error is raised immediately upon calling a parser method for an invalid environment variable.
To defer validation and raise an exception with the combined error messages for all invalid variables, pass `eager=False` to `Env`.
Call `env.seal()` after all variables have been parsed.
```python
# export TTL=-2
# export NODE_ENV='invalid'
# export EMAIL='^_^'
from better_pyenv import Env
from marshmallow.validate import OneOf, Email, Length, Range
env = Env(eager=False)
TTL = env.int("TTL", validate=Range(min=0, max=100))
NODE_ENV = env.str(
"NODE_ENV",
validate=OneOf(
["production", "development"], error="NODE_ENV must be one of: {choices}"
),
)
EMAIL = env.str("EMAIL", validate=[Length(min=4), Email()])
env.seal()
# better_pyenv.EnvValidationError: Environment variables invalid: {'TTL': ['Must be greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 100.'], 'NODE_ENV': ['NODE_ENV must be one of: production, development'], 'EMAIL': ['Shorter than minimum length 4.', 'Not a valid email address.']}
```
`env.seal()` validates all parsed variables and prevents further parsing (calling a parser method will raise an error).
## Serialization
```python
# serialize to a dictionary of simple types (numbers and strings)
env.dump()
# {'COORDINATES': [23.3, 50.0],
# 'ENABLE_FEATURE_X': False,
# 'ENABLE_LOGIN': True,
# 'GITHUB_REPOS': ['webargs', 'konch', 'ped'],
# 'GITHUB_USER': 'sloria',
# 'MAX_CONNECTIONS': 100,
# 'MYAPP_HOST': 'lolcathost',
# 'MYAPP_PORT': 3000,
# 'SHIP_DATE': '1984-06-25',
# 'TTL': 42}
```
## Defining custom parser behavior
```python
# export DOMAIN='http://myapp.com'
# export COLOR=invalid
from furl import furl
# Register a new parser method for paths
@env.parser_for("furl")
def furl_parser(value):
return furl(value)
domain = env.furl("DOMAIN") # => furl('https://myapp.com')
# Custom parsers can take extra keyword arguments
@env.parser_for("choice")
def choice_parser(value, choices):
if value not in choices:
raise better_pyenv.EnvError("Invalid!")
return value
color = env.choice("COLOR", choices=["black"]) # => raises EnvError
```
## Usage with Flask
```python
# myapp/settings.py
from better_pyenv import Env
env = Env()
env.read_env()
# Override in .env for local development
DEBUG = env.bool("FLASK_DEBUG", default=False)
# SECRET_KEY is required
SECRET_KEY = env.str("SECRET_KEY")
```
Load the configuration after you initialize your app.
```python
# myapp/app.py
from flask import Flask
app = Flask(__name__)
app.config.from_object("myapp.settings")
```
For local development, use a `.env` file to override the default
configuration.
```bash
# .env
DEBUG=true
SECRET_KEY="not so secret"
```
Note: Because better-pyenv depends on [python-dotenv](https://github.com/theskumar/python-dotenv),
the `flask` CLI will automatically read .env and .flaskenv files.
## Usage with Django
better-pyenv includes a number of helpers for parsing connection URLs. To
install better-pyenv with django support:
pip install better-pyenv[django]
Use `env.dj_db_url`, `env.dj_cache_url` and `env.dj_email_url` to parse the `DATABASE_URL`, `CACHE_URL`
and `EMAIL_URL` environment variables, respectively.
For more details on URL patterns, see the following projects that better-pyenv is using for converting URLs.
- [dj-database-url](https://github.com/jacobian/dj-database-url)
- [django-cache-url](https://github.com/epicserve/django-cache-url)
- [dj-email-url](https://github.com/migonzalvar/dj-email-url)
Basic example:
```python
# myproject/settings.py
from better_pyenv import Env
env = Env()
env.read_env()
# Override in .env for local development
DEBUG = env.bool("DEBUG", default=False)
# SECRET_KEY is required
SECRET_KEY = env.str("SECRET_KEY")
# Parse database URLs, e.g. "postgres://localhost:5432/mydb"
DATABASES = {"default": env.dj_db_url("DATABASE_URL")}
# Parse email URLs, e.g. "smtp://"
email = env.dj_email_url("EMAIL_URL", default="smtp://")
EMAIL_HOST = email["EMAIL_HOST"]
EMAIL_PORT = email["EMAIL_PORT"]
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD = email["EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD"]
EMAIL_HOST_USER = email["EMAIL_HOST_USER"]
EMAIL_USE_TLS = email["EMAIL_USE_TLS"]
# Parse cache URLS, e.g "redis://localhost:6379/0"
CACHES = {"default": env.dj_cache_url("CACHE_URL")}
```
For local development, use a `.env` file to override the default
configuration.
```bash
# .env
DEBUG=true
SECRET_KEY="not so secret"
```
## Why\...?
### Why envvars?
See [The 12-factor App](http://12factor.net/config) section on
[configuration](http://12factor.net/config).
### Why not `os.environ`?
While `os.environ` is enough for simple use cases, a typical application
will need a way to manipulate and validate raw environment variables.
better-pyenv abstracts common tasks for handling environment variables.
better-pyenv will help you
- cast envvars to the correct type
- specify required envvars
- define default values
- validate envvars
- parse list and dict values
- parse dates, datetimes, and timedeltas
- parse expanded variables
- serialize your configuration to JSON, YAML, etc.
### Why another library?
There are many great Python libraries for parsing environment variables.
In fact, most of the credit for better-pyenv\' public API goes to the
authors of [envparse](https://github.com/rconradharris/envparse) and
[django-environ](https://github.com/joke2k/django-environ).
better-pyenv aims to meet three additional goals:
1. Make it easy to extend parsing behavior and develop plugins.
2. Leverage the deserialization and validation functionality provided
by a separate library (marshmallow).
3. Clean up redundant API.
See [this GitHub
issue](https://github.com/rconradharris/envparse/issues/12#issue-151036722)
which details specific differences with envparse.