How to pass a list as an environment variable?

Question

I use a list as part of a Python program, and wanted to convert that to an environment variable.

So, it\'s like this:

list1 = [\'a.1\',\'b.2\',\'c.3\']
         


        

Answer 1

The environs PyPI package handles my use case well: load a single setting from env var and coerce it to a list, int, etc:

from environs import Env

env = Env()
env.read_env()  # read .env file, if it exists
# required variables
gh_user = env("GITHUB_USER")  # => 'sloria'
secret = env("SECRET")  # => raises error if not set

# casting
max_connections = env.int("MAX_CONNECTIONS")  # => 100
ship_date = env.date("SHIP_DATE")  # => datetime.date(1984, 6, 25)
ttl = env.timedelta("TTL")  # => datetime.timedelta(0, 42)

# providing a default value
enable_login = env.bool("ENABLE_LOGIN", False)  # => True
enable_feature_x = env.bool("ENABLE_FEATURE_X", False)  # => False

# parsing lists
gh_repos = env.list("GITHUB_REPOS")  # => ['webargs', 'konch', 'ped']
coords = env.list("COORDINATES", subcast=float)  # => [23.3, 50.0]