Externalize configuration values

Avoid hardcoding configuration values directly in scripts, especially for values that might change between environments or contain sensitive information. Instead, use environment variables, build parameters, or secrets management systems.

Key practices:

1. Move endpoint URLs, license keys, and service addresses to environment variables
2. Maintain consistent naming conventions for environment variables across different scripts
3. Configure CI/CD systems to inject these values during build and deployment
4. Use default values only for development environments, never for production configurations

Example - Instead of:

export CHEF_LICENSE_SERVER="http://hosted-license-service-lb-8000-606952349.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com:8000"

Use:

export CHEF_LICENSE_SERVER="${CHEF_LICENSE_SERVER:-fallback_value_for_dev_only}"

Or configure the value in your CI/CD system’s environment variables or secrets store.

For version information, prefer environment variables provided by your CI/CD system over reading from files:

# Preferred
VERSION="${EXPEDITOR_VERSION}"

# Avoid
VERSION=$(cat VERSION)