Environment Variables in local actions

[thomprl]

So I was playing with developing locally and trying to follow the documentation here. I think maybe it could use a little tweaking for newbies like me that haven't developed locally before.
https://codefori.github.io/docs/developing/local/actions/#libraries

When I first started compiling my program it compiled to the *CURLIB of the library list (we will call it TESTLIB), which I understand as the actions were set to *CURLIB.

So then as I was reading the documentation the way I read it is you could set it in actions.json or .env. I wasn't sure what it meant by the using the actions.json file other than hardcoding the library I wanted which is an option. But I thought the .env file made more sense to me. I assume the .env file goes under the .vscode folder? So when I compiled with the .env file setup something like this:

CURLIB=RTHOMPSON
BUILDLIB=RTHOMPSON
LIBLS=RTHOMPSON
BRANCHLIB=RTHOMPSON

It still compiled the object to *CURLIB (TESTLIB). So then I saw you could add environment variables to the IBMi Library List and added them there and that seemed to work. I then changed my Library List Environment Variables to just test that the .env file was being ignored and it was.

I guess my question is do I have the .env file in the wrong place? What is the order that it looks for the environment variables? I would think it would look at .env first if it exists, then look at the Library List Environment Variables, then just default to *CURLIB. Maybe I have the .env file in the wrong location?

[worksofliam]

@thomprl The .env will go in the root of the workspace folder and then it will be picked up when Actions are executed.

[thomprl]

Ok thanks. Looks like Environment Variables on the Library List override what might be in the .env file at least in my testing I believe. Kind of seems like the .env file should override what's saved under the Library List. But there might be a technical reason. Seems like that should be the default but .env should override it if available. But I'm just getting started so what do I know.