value_to¶

The value_to definition-attribute writes the resolved value to STDERR. It is additive: a normal definition still emits its usual shell export. Combine it with name: null when the value should be a terminal-only status message.

Do not use value_to to reveal secrets. STDERR can be captured by terminals, CI systems, and logs.

Example — to STDERR¶

env-alias:

  EXAMPLE_STDERR:
    name: null
    value: "This is a message that will get sent to STDERR"
    value_to: "<stderr>"

The message is written to STDERR, which the shell never sources, so it is displayed in your terminal without interfering with stdout. Because the definition uses name: null, it does not export EXAMPLE_STDERR.

value_to: <stdout> was removed (0.7.0)¶

value_to: <stdout> is no longer supported. It was removed because env-alias's stdout is always sourced by your shell (source <(env-alias ...)), so anything written there is executed as shell code. Writing a raw, unquoted value to stdout therefore produced broken output — and could execute arbitrary commands if the value contained shell syntax.

If you still have <stdout> (or <STDOUT>) in a definition, env-alias now fails with a clear error like:

Invalid definition for 'EXAMPLE': ... "'value_to: <stdout>' was removed because it wrote raw, unquoted text into
the stream your shell sources. Use 'value_to: <stderr>' to send a message to the terminal instead."

Simply change value_to: "<stdout>" to value_to: "<stderr>" to send the same content to the terminal safely.