Set env variables on Gitpod per terminal

[mikenikles]

This is a follow-up to a discussion on Discord (message link).

The before start task makes sure the env variables are available for the init and command tasks in both terminals.

Please give that a go for a while and do let me know if you still see flaky behaviour with env vars.

[jtoar]

Hey @mikenikles thanks for the fix; we've gone back and forth a few times on this and one question I have is: is there a way to set a repo-level env var, that's not specific to a terminal? That's what we were trying to do with the gp cli:

eval $(gp env -e RWFW_PATH="/workspace/redwood")
eval $(gp env -e RWJS_DEV_API_URL="http://localhost")

[thedavidprice]

@jtoar but is it the repo-level that's the context or is it the GitPod container/workspace? I might not understand correctly, but based on the change here, GitPod will now include the env vars in the workspace (container?) environment, which is where we wanted it to be all along.

[thedavidprice]

Confirming this is working well in GitPod workspace. I tested here:
https://gold-lynx-yfauo4fk.ws-us17.gitpod.io/

[jtoar]

@thedavidprice I want what you're describing but this PR as I understand it only sets it for each terminal (which is why there's two before steps, one for each), not for the whole workspace/container/etc. So it goes away when the terminal's exited.

To be clear this is still a valid solution that I'm happy with, it just means that if a user exits both terminals (for whatever reason) before running yarn rwfw project:sync, the env var won't be persisted via configstore

[thedavidprice]

So it goes away when the terminal's exited.

AH, got it. Yeah, that's not ideal. (And not what I understood.)

[jtoar]

@thedavidprice here's the gitpod issue I'm using to track the status of the project-level environment variables: gitpod-io/gitpod#4456.

Seeing as they're not a feature yet, and that we've changed this config quite a few times already without lasting success, I'm all for just merging this as the solution for now and dealing with (via docs) the user-exits-both-terminals edge case.

[thedavidprice]

Seeing as they're not a feature yet, and that we've changed this config quite a few times already without lasting success, I'm all for just merging this as the solution for now and dealing with (via docs) the user-exits-both-terminals edge case.

Personally, I have not experienced strange behavior with the current implementation. Also, based on the Issue you linked I'm not expected project-level env vars any time soon.

I think for me to say, "Ok, let's do it", I'd want us to first have a visible message and/or docs about this behavior. I.e. if you close both terminals, both yarn rwfw and yarn rw dev will no longer appear to work.

[thedavidprice]

Q: is there a way we can have a message that displays in a terminal whenever it's started?

[jtoar]

Personally, I have not experienced strange behavior with the current implementation.

@thedavidprice Here's a screenshot showing what I'm seeing, that the env var RWFW_PATH isn't defined (bottom left terminal). I'm just using our repo with out current config, via gitpod.io/#https://github.com/redwoodjs/redwood:

I've tried this PR and it works; I see it defined there.

Q: is there a way we can have a message that displays in a terminal whenever it's started?

We do have a message that displays actually but we can add to it for sure.

[dac09]

I'm going to merge this in, because atleast it will be more consistent the gp env method. With the caveat that opening a new terminal window will mean it won't have these vars defined, only the default ones will.

@mikenikles - just something to be aware of, I think there maybe a bug in the gp cli, where it doesn't always set env variables this way.

The challenge is the person writing the original PR never sees this, only other people trying to use it sometimes find that the env var isn't defined. I suspect that's because gp env applies on a per account basis, and something goes wrong there when the PR is in a forked repo

[thedavidprice]

We do have a message that displays actually but we can add to it for sure.

@dac09 Can we at least do something like ^^ to give some info about terminal behavior re: Env Vars?

[dac09]

@dac09 Can we at least do something like ^^ to give some info about terminal behavior re: Env Vars?

Done ✅

[thedavidprice]

ship it 🚀