Managing .env file in Azure Pipeline

Quick tip to use environment variables for your Test Automation.

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In the Test Automation framework, we often use the .env file to configure test properties including API endpoints or secret tokens. We ignore these files in .gitignore to make sure they’ve not been pushed to the repository.

Problem:

• Setup Test Automation in Azure CI/CD Pipeline.
• .env file is required while executing the tests.

Solution:

• Navigate to Pipeline -> Library -> Secure Files to upload the .env file

• Authorise the use of .env in all pipelines

• Update azure-pipeline.yml in your pipeline to use the .env assuming that the .env is required in the source directory to run the tests successfully

- task: DownloadSecureFile@1
  inputs:
    secureFile: ‘.env’
- task: CopyFiles@2
  inputs:
    SourceFolder: $(Agent.TempDirectory)
    Contents: ‘**\.env’
    TargetFolder: $(Build.SourcesDirectory)