Add Load Env Vars In Bash Script as a Unix TIL

README.md

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ pairing with smart people at Hashrocket.
 
 For a steady stream of TILs, [sign up for my newsletter](https://crafty-builder-6996.ck.page/e169c61186).
 
-_1311 TILs and counting..._
+_1312 TILs and counting..._
 
 ---
 
@@ -1292,6 +1292,7 @@ _1311 TILs and counting..._
 - [List Stats For A File](unix/list-stats-for-a-file.md)
 - [List The Available JDKs](unix/list-the-available-jdks.md)
 - [List The Stack Of Remembered Directories](unix/list-the-stack-of-remembered-directories.md)
+- [Load Env Vars In Bash Script](unix/load-env-vars-in-bash-script.md)
 - [Map A Domain To localhost](unix/map-a-domain-to-localhost.md)
 - [Negative Look-Ahead Search With ripgrep](unix/negative-look-ahead-search-with-ripgrep.md)
 - [Occupy A Local Port With Netcat](unix/occupy-a-local-port-with-netcat.md)

unix/load-env-vars-in-bash-script.md

@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Load Env Vars In Bash Script
+
+I have a file with environment variables in my current directory named
+something like `.env.local`. I want to load those variabls into my environment
+in the context of a bash script. That can be accomplished by exporting them at
+the beginning of the script with a line like this:
+
+```bash
+export $(egrep -v '^#' .env.local | xargs)
+```
+
+This uses `egrep` with the `-v '^#'` inverted match pattern to excluded any
+comment lines. Then `xargs` is going to remove any excess whitespace and echo
+the sequence env var entries. All of which will be the argument passed to
+`export` which adds them to the environment.
+
+Here is an example of using it in a script that uses one of those secret env
+var values as a bearer token in a cURL request.
+
+```bash
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Load environment variables from .env.local file
+export $(egrep -v '^#' .env.local | xargs)
+
+# Now you can use the environment variable in your CURL command
+curl -L \
+  -X POST \
+  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
+  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_ACCESS_TOKEN"\
+  -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2022-11-28" \
+  https://api.github.com/repos/jbranchaud/github-actions-experiment/actions/workflows/playwright.yml/dispatches \
+  -d '{"ref":"main"}'
+```