Use consistent patterns for environment variable handling in shell scripts. Always provide sensible defaults using the ${VAR:-default} syntax, validate required variables early with clear error messages, and preserve the ability to override configuration values.
For variables with defaults:
strategies=${STRATEGIES:=fast,hi_res,ocr_only}
RUN_SCRIPT=${RUN_SCRIPT:-unstructured-ingest}
PYTHONPATH=${PYTHONPATH:-.}
For required variables, validate early and provide helpful error messages:
if [ -z "$VECTARA_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID" ]; then
echo "Skipping VECTARA ingest test because VECTARA_OAUTH_CLIENT_ID env var is not set."
exit 0
fi
Document configurable environment variables in script comments or usage instructions to make them discoverable for users who aren’t familiar with shell scripting. This approach allows scripts to work out-of-the-box with reasonable defaults while remaining flexible for different environments and use cases.
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