Usage

Command line

From the original envdir documentation:

envdir runs another program with environment modified according to files in a specified directory.

Interface:

envdir d child

d is a single argument. child consists of one or more arguments.

envdir sets various environment variables as specified by files in the directory named d. It then runs child.

If d contains a file named s whose first line is t, envdir removes an environment variable named s if one exists, and then adds an environment variable named s with value t. The name s must not contain =. Spaces and tabs at the end of t are removed. Nulls in t are changed to newlines in the environment variable.

If the file s is completely empty (0 bytes long), envdir removes an environment variable named s if one exists, without adding a new variable.

envdir exits 111 if it has trouble reading d, if it runs out of memory for environment variables, or if it cannot run child. Otherwise its exit code is the same as that of child.

Alternatively you can also use the python -m envdir form to call envdir.

Isolated shell

envdir also includes an optional CLI tool called envshell which launches a subshell using the given directory. It basically allows you to make a set of environment variable stick to your current shell session if you happen to use envdir a lot outside of simple script use.

For example:

$ envshell ~/mysite/envs/prod/
Launching envshell for /home/jezdez/mysite/envs/prod. Type 'exit' or 'Ctrl+D' to return.
$ python manage.py runserver
..

To leave the subshell, simply use the exit command or press Ctrl+D.

Setup an empty environment variable

Use an empty line to setup an empty environment variable (in contrast to an empty file, which would unset the environment variable):

$ echo > envdir/EMPTY_ENV
$ envdir envdir env | grep EMPTY_ENV
EMPTY_ENV=