> For comparison using JSON configuration files this entire class os problems would not exist. Every application would read the data in the same way
The issue they mentioned earlier remains, as it's not specific to env vars. What if you don't supply a config file?
> The environment is now different. What should the program do? Use the old configuration that had the env var set or the new one where it is not set? Error out? Try to silently merge the different options into one? Something else?
I'm really not a big fan of using env vars for configuration but there are cases where it's a good choice, for example running docker compose and passing a .env file that becomes the configuration for the container.
I agree that it's not a very good way to configure an application in a "shared" environment. For instance, I'm not a fan of curl reading my HTTPS_PROXY env var and implicitly using that value. That should be controlled exclusively by a cli switch imho.
The issue they mentioned earlier remains, as it's not specific to env vars. What if you don't supply a config file?
> The environment is now different. What should the program do? Use the old configuration that had the env var set or the new one where it is not set? Error out? Try to silently merge the different options into one? Something else?
I'm really not a big fan of using env vars for configuration but there are cases where it's a good choice, for example running docker compose and passing a .env file that becomes the configuration for the container.
I agree that it's not a very good way to configure an application in a "shared" environment. For instance, I'm not a fan of curl reading my HTTPS_PROXY env var and implicitly using that value. That should be controlled exclusively by a cli switch imho.