Environment Variables

Read process environment variables using getEnv from the system module.

import { getEnv } from "system";

Table of Contents

• getEnv([name, defaultValue])
  • Parameters
  • Return Value
  • Example: Read One Variable
  • Example: Read All Variables
  • Notes

getEnv([name, defaultValue])

Returns either:

• all environment variables as an object (when name is omitted), or
• a single environment variable value as a string (when name is provided).

Parameters

• name
  • Type: string
  • Required: No
  • Description: Environment variable key (for example, "PATH").
• defaultValue
  • Type: string
  • Required: No
  • Description: Fallback value used only when name is provided and the variable is missing or empty.

Return Value

• Type: object | string
• Description:
  • getEnv() returns an object map of all env vars.
  • getEnv(name) returns a string (empty string when missing).
  • getEnv(name, defaultValue) returns defaultValue when the variable is missing/empty.

Example: Read One Variable

import { getEnv } from "system";

const user = getEnv("USERNAME", "unknown");
console.log("user:", user);

Example: Read All Variables

import { getEnv } from "system";

const vars = getEnv();
console.log("PATH:", vars.PATH);
console.log("HOME:", vars.HOME);

Notes

• Environment variable names are platform-dependent (Windows commonly uses uppercase keys like PATH, USERNAME, APPDATA).
• getEnv(name, defaultValue) treats empty values the same as missing values.