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I am using the tool env-cmd to manage my environment variables, and am encountering the error:

Error: Failed to find .rc file at default paths: [./.env-cmdrc,./.env-cmdrc.js,./.env-cmdrc.json]

I have verified that the file (in my case ./.env-cmdrc) does exist in the working directory and has sufficient permissions 644 (anyone can read). The file also contains the expected values.

This is not a result of using the wrong flag/syntax to find the env file as other questions are.

The command being ran is formatted as env-cmd -e ENVIRONMENT_NAME

Why is this error thrown?

Brian Thompson
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1 Answers1

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Unfortunately, this library throws this misleading error in a few different cases when the file is actually present.

Malformed JSON in the env file

A commonly reported source of this error is invalid JSON in the file. (GitHub issue). Trailing commas are common, but it could be from a variety of causes.

Missing environment in env file

When using an env-cmdrc file with multiple environments (see Advanced Usage), this error is thrown when the environment specified in the command is not present in the file.

In my case, I was using a variable to determine the target environment which was undefined, resulting in env-cmd -e undefined. The JSON did not have a key called undefined which causes the error to be thrown.

These are the only two scenarios I have found that illegitimately cause this error so far. The library has not been updated in 3 years, so it seems unlikely that it will be fixed.

Brian Thompson
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