Question

MONGO_URI is undefined in the droplet (Ubuntu 20.04)

I am trying to deploy my MERN app to a Digital Ocean droplet(Ubuntu server 20.04). I cloned my GitHub repo, ran npm i in order to install the packages. Then when I started the server using npm start, I am getting an error thats says the MONGO_URI connection string is undefined. However, in my local machine when I console.log process.env.MONGO_URI, I am getting the string. Also in the droplet, I tried the command: export MONGO_URI=the_connection_string. Even then I get the same error. You can see the details of the error if you follow my stack overflow question on the same issue: https://stackoverflow.com/q/66849235/9409877. What am I doing wrong?

Submit an answer


This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

Sign In or Sign Up to Answer

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

pgcim14hemant • March 30, 2021
Accepted Answer

I solved the problem. I had put the .env file in .gitignore. Therefore .env file was not available in the droplet. I created a .env file using vim and now everything works fine.

eugenehp • March 29, 2021

Hey, @pgcim14hemant I would add https://www.npmjs.com/package/dotenv to your packages and configured the local environment variable.

npm install dotenv
touch .env
echo MONGO_URI=PASTE_YOUR_URI_HERE >> .env

In your code add this:

require('dotenv').config

Try DigitalOcean for free

Click below to sign up and get $200 of credit to try our products over 60 days!

Sign up