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Direnv

Dotfiles to setup common directory environment management per project using direnv uniformly for all my projects.

IMPORTANT !
Main repo is on Framagit - My Dotfiles / Direnv.
On other online git platforms, they are just mirrors of the main repo.
Any issues, pull/merge requests, etc., might not be considered on those other platforms.

Introduction

This repo aims to help managing directory environment uniformly accross multiple project. Management of directory environment (i.e. activation and deactivation) are done automatically using direnv.

What is a directory environment ?

What we call a directory environment is a set of environment variables, binary, scripts, etc., that should only be configured when working on a specific project (i.e. in a specific folder and its subfolder).

For instance, if you use python virtualenv and OpenStack. Usually, when starting to work, you often may enter the following command:

# Load OpenStack project variable
source openrc.sh
# Activate python virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

This will setup OpenStack related variable and Python Virtual environment related variable as well as the method deactivate to deactivate the python virtual environment.

Both of these are directory related process, usually you do not want these values to be set when on another directory.

So to conclude this description, basically this repo will help you to setup your directory to:

  • Automate these command to setup environment variable and methods when entering directories in which you want these varaible set
  • Automate unsetting these variables and methods when leaving the directory.

This is achieve automatically using direnv. direnv is an extension for your shell. It augments existing shells with a new feature that can load and unload environment variables depending on the current directory.

In other terms, if a script .envrc is present in a folder and allowed for direnv, it will automatically be executed when entering the folder. When leaving the folder any exported variables will be automatically unloaded.

Why this repo since there is direnv ?

Since some times now, I use direnv to manage my directory environment. Nevertheless, I was tired to always rewrite or copy/paste the same base scripts, then adapt them for each of my working directory. This repo is here to help managing the directory environment script in a homogeneous manner. Now, I do not need to rewrite or copy/paste the base scripts. All of my repos have the same scripts (i.e. modules) and I configure them using a .envrc.ini file.

Quickstart

To use this repo, simply clone it in your direnv configuration folder, usually in ~/.config/direnv.

cd ~/.config
git clone https://framagit.org/rdeville.public/my_dotfiles/direnv

Then got the the folder where you want to create a directory environment and create a basic .envrc file with the following content:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# Call main method defined in ~/.config/direnv/direnvrc
activate_direnv

Then copy ~/.config/direnv/templates/envrc.template.ini next to .envrc.

cp ~/.config/direnv/templates/envrc.template.ini .envrc.ini

Now, see modules documentation to choose which module you want as well as their configuration. Then, update .envrc.ini configuration file accordingly with your favorite editor (vim here as example).

vim .envrc.ini

Finally, activate the directory environment.

# If you are using `direnv`, you can allow it for the current directory
direnv allow

This will parse your .envrc.ini and load modules accordingly.

Once you have finish working, your directory environment will automatically be unload when leaving the directory.

See Setup directory environment for a more complete usage description.

Last update: January 7, 2022
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