type coercion as a MUST

[jwanner83]

Hi @jonschlinkert thank you for your work! I think it is a great idea to create a specification for the .env file to clarify and normalize the behavior of parsers.

My biggest pain with the .env file "format" was always the missing type coercion in most parsers, especially with boolean values. It is very common to have true | false as values of .env keys and I always was frustrated in having to write code like env.KEY === "true" ? true : false.

So my question / proposal is, to make boolean and number type coercion a MUST to have a consistent handling of theses cases.

What do you think about this?

[jonschlinkert]

I agree that it should be supported. I wasn't sure about whether it should be mandatory or optional. The section on data types was my best effort at trying to put something reasonable in place, I'm very open to modifying it based on community feedback.

Would you like to do a PR so we can get feedback?

[nick-w-nick]

I like the idea of it being supported by the spec but optionally implemented. That way existing parsers can still adhere to the standard with fewer adjustments if they don't want to support coercion.