Can't read my environment variable in my Node.js app

Question

I am on Ubuntu 12.04 and I\'m just learning about environment variables. I am trying to read a custom variable from within my application but it always shows up as undefin

Answer 1

You need to export shell variables in order to make them available to processes you execute in your shell.

Compare the output of this command:

FOO=bar; bash -c 'echo $FOO'

with the output of this:

export FOO=bar; bash -c 'echo $FOO'