Ruby: Managing environment variables

This documentation is part of the Getting started guide. You can view the complete guide here: Getting started with Ruby on Rails.

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Environment variables are essential for safeguarding sensitive data such as API keys and database passwords.

The dotenv-rails gem offers a convenient way to manage environment variables in your development environment. Here are the steps:

1. Add the gem to your Gemfile in the appropriate groups:

   # Gemfile
   gem 'dotenv-rails', groups: [:development, :test]
   

2. Install the gem by running:

   bundle install
   

3. Create a .env file at the root of your project and define your environment variables. For example:

   RAILS_ENV=development
   

4. To protect your sensitive data, ensure that the .env file is excluded from your Git repository. Add the following line to your .gitignore:

   echo '.env*' >> .gitignore
   

After completing these steps, restart your Rails server. The environment variables defined in the .env file will now be automatically accessible in your application.

Environment variables for your development platform