Question
Droplet Environment Variables Disappearing
- Posted on February 3, 2017
- NginxConfiguration ManagementSystem ToolsLinux CommandsGhostUbuntu
Asked by connordphillips
I have a Ghost droplet that I recently noticed was not taking image uploads as indicated by the following code that appeared when I tried to upload from the markdown editor file explorer . As a result I decided to ssh into my droplet to check out my config file where I am using environment variables to store images to my s3 bucket and noticed when I ran printenv that my environment variables were not there. I decided to set the env variables again like so: export AWS_ACCESS_KEY=*KEY ID* and ran printenv again and the key was there, but ssh’ing into the droplet a day later and the AWS_ACCESS_KEY is gone. Am I setting the env variables correctly? Any reason why they would disappear? I tend to run service ghost restart after setting them, but this didn’t reset the env variables.
Here is the storage configuration in my config.js:
storage: {
active: 'ghost-s3',
'ghost-s3': {
accessKeyId: process.env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY,
secretAccessKey: process.env.AWS_SECRET_KEY,
bucket: process.env.S3_BUCKET,
region: process.env.S3_REGION,
assetHost: process.env.S3_URL
}
},
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@connordphillips
When you use
export, whether it’s in.profile,.bash_profile, or another file that’s loaded when you login to SSH, the exported data will only persist for that session (i.e. until that SSH user logs out). For data to persist, it needs to be defined in a persistent way.Method #01
With NodeJS, the first option is to use
process.envand define the environment variables in a file that isn’t accessible to the public. Yes, this is slightly frowned upon and most will say you’re doing it wrong but it’s the first obvious method.Method #02
Alternatively, you can pass environment variables when running
node. For example:Method #03
Utilize and existing package to handle
.envand environment variables – particularly,dotenv.https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv
https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv
Using Git/GitHub/Version Control?
Make sure you setup a line to ignore your environment files in Method #01 and #03. You don’t want to commit those files to any public repository.
@connordphillips
You can drop the
export’s in.profile, though keep in mind that this will only apply to therootuser and only when that user logs in. They won’t be globally set, available to other users, or available to your application unless you’re running it while logged in via SSH. Once you close the connection to SSH, whether it’s by hitting theXor usingexit, they will disappear.The same applies even if you’re running as a user other than
root(ideally, you should be – creating asudouser and escalating to runrootcommands is better in terms of security).If you need the exported data to persist, you would need to define them using
process.envas noted at the end of my previous reply.@connordphillips
When you run
export, the export is only valid for the shell that you’re currently logged in to. Once you logout, whatever you’ve exported will disappear unless it’s explicity set in.bash_profilefor the user in question.For example, if you’re username is
connord, you’d setup a.bash_profilefor this user and add to it:Then when you login as
connord, theexportcommands will automatically run and you’ll be able to access those variables.That said,
exportis still only valid to the logged in users’ shell, so you’d need to physically set them for persistence.For details, you can read about
process.envhere:https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_env
You’ll need to define the
process.envvariables for them to be persistent. For example: