Autoenv: Directory-based Environments

Magic per-project shell environments

Note: you should probably use direnv instead. Simply put, it is higher quality software. But, autoenv is still great, too. Maybe try both? :)

This image sums up the relationship between the two projects, very well:

What is it?

If a directory contains a .env file, it will automatically be executed when you cd into it. When enabled (set AUTOENV_ENABLE_LEAVE to a non-null string), if a directory contains a .env.leave file, it will automatically be executed when you leave it.

This is great for...

• auto-activating virtualenvs
• auto-deactivating virtualenvs
• project-specific environment variables
• making millions

You can also nest envs within each other. How awesome is that!?

When executing, autoenv, will walk up the directories until the mount point and execute all .env files beginning at the top.

Usage

Follow the white rabbit:

$ echo "echo 'whoa'" > project/.env
$ cd project
whoa

Install

Install it easily:

MacOS using Homebrew

$ brew install autoenv
$ echo "source $(brew --prefix autoenv)/activate.sh" >> ~/.bash_profile

Using Git

$ git clone git://github.com/inishchith/autoenv.git ~/.autoenv
$ echo 'source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Using AUR

Arch Linux users can install autoenv or autoenv-git with their favorite AUR helper.

You need to source activate.sh in your bashrc afterwards:

$ echo 'source /usr/share/autoenv/activate.sh' >> ~/.bashrc

Note that there was previously a pip installation option, but it is no longer recommended as the package is severely out of date

Configuration

Before sourcing activate.sh, you can set the following variables:

• AUTOENV_AUTH_FILE: Authorized env files, defaults to ~/.autoenv_authorized
• AUTOENV_ENV_FILENAME: Name of the .env file, defaults to .env
• AUTOENV_LOWER_FIRST: Set this variable to a non-null string to flip the order of .env files executed
• AUTOENV_ENV_LEAVE_FILENAME: Name of the .env.leave file, defaults to .env.leave
• AUTOENV_ENABLE_LEAVE: Set this to a non-null string in order to enable source env when leaving
• AUTOENV_ASSUME_YES: Set this variable to a non-null string to silently authorize the initialization of new environments

Shells

autoenv is tested on:

• bash
• zsh
• dash
• fish is supported by autoenv_fish
• more to come

Alternatives

direnv is an excellent alternative to autoenv, and includes the ability to unset environment variables as well. It also supports the fish terminal.

https://direnv.net

Disclaimer

Autoenv overrides cd. If you already do this, invoke autoenv_init within your custom cd after sourcing activate.sh.

Autoenv can be disabled via unset cd if you experience I/O issues with certain file systems, particularly those that are FUSE-based (such as smbnetfs).

Attributions

Autoenv was originally created by @kennethreitz. Ownership was then transfered to @inishchith. As of August 22nd, 2021, Edwin Kofler (@hyperupcall) owns and maintains the project