Set inspect.defaultOptions using environment variables

[deadbeef84]

• Version: v6.9.1
• Platform: Linux jesper-UX303LB 4.4.0-72-generic 93-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 31 14:07:41 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Subsystem: util

I really like the addition of util.inspect.defaultOptions, but what would be even nicer would be some way to specify these using environment variables. That way no code changes would have to be made to specify these and on a local development machine one could set their default preference easily.

I'm suggesting the following environment variables:

NODE_INSPECT_SHOWHIDDEN
NODE_INSPECT_DEPTH
NODE_INSPECT_COLORS
NODE_INSPECT_CUSTOMINSPECT
NODE_INSPECT_SHOWPROXY
NODE_INSPECT_MAXARRAYLENGTH
NODE_INSPECT_BREAKLENGTH

[mscdex]

-1 I can see this easily being a slippery slope for a multitude of other options for other core modules as well.

[cjihrig]

-1 from me as well.

[Fishrock123]

node -r set-console-options.js

[deadbeef84]

node -r set-console-options.js

Yes, this is what I'm currently using. However, that doesn't work when running projects using tooling (forever, pm2, nodemon, gulp, etc).

[silverwind]

I'd rather do those in a .noderc file, than to add a load of environment variables, but generally it's not really clear to me which set of options shall take precedence. If user-defined options are taken, it can be dangerous because it can alter program behaviour unexpectedly, and if the script-defined options are taken, the user is not really in control which isn't great.

I think we should actually re-evaluate our defaults. I run into depth and maxArrayLength limits very often when debugging in the REPL and I think having more acceptable defaults might be the best option in the long run.

[jasnell]

@deadbeef84 ... we just recently landed the NODE_OPTIONS environment variable. That can be used to set a -r whatever.js that should work with each of those tools.

[Trott]

Hi, @deadbeef84! Thanks for making the feature request and explaining the use case. It sounds like NODE_OPTIONS has this covered so I'm going to close this. If I'm mistaken about that, please comment (or, if GitHub permits, re-open). Thanks!