Using private key in a .env file

Question

I have a multiline private key in a gatsby .env file:

GATSBY_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID="12345"
GATSBY_GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY="-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nflkdflkdf...\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----"

In my gatsby-config file I have:

module.exports = {
    resolve: 'gatsby-source-google-sheets',
    options: {
        credentials: {
            "type": "service_account",
            "private_key": process.env.GATSBY_GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY,
            "client_id": process.env.GATSBY_GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID
        }
    }
}

The client_id works fine because it's just a one line string but the private_key doesn't work, presumably because it's multi line.

Is there a way I can get around this?

Thanks

Answer 1

You could use string.replace with a regular expression as below to escape the \n characters again:

"private_key": process.env.GATSBY_GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY.replace(/\\n/g, '\n'),

Answer 2

Solution which worked for me -- Encoding the Private Key in base 64

Step1 - Convert Key to Base 64

// Run this code in a JS file on your Dev Machine.
const privateKey= `-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvSomeMoreCharacterHererplw==\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n`
const buff = Buffer.from(privateKey).toString('base64');
console.log(buff);

Note: You don't need to commit/include the above code in your project. This is just to generate the base64 string of the key.

Step 2 - Copy the console log data to .env file

PRIVATE_KEY = 'akgjhakdgjhasgf'

Step 3 - Using the Key in the code

const key = Buffer.from(process.env.PRIVATE_KEY , 'base64').toString('ascii');
// Use key anywhere in your code.