Node.js 20.6.0, the latest version of the asynchronous, event-driven JavaScript runtime, includes built-in env. file support for configuring environment variables.
The update, cited as the “current” version of Node.js and announced September 4, can be downloaded from the project website. With env., Node.js proponents said the configuration file should follow the INI file format, with each line having a key-value pair for an environment variable. To initialize the Node.js application with predefined configurations, developers can use this CLI command: node—file=config.env index.js. In addition, the change for environment variables enables definition of NODE_OPTIONS directly in the .env file, eliminating the need to put it in package.json.
