Environment variables

All argument names and values are also passed as environment variables as well, which can be very useful when passing several arguments to a script, for example.

config.yaml

actions:
  - title: Print names of new files
    shell: /opt/newfile.py
    arguments:
      - name: filename
        type: unicode_identifier

      - name: filesizebytes
        type: unicode_identifier

      - name: fileisdir
        type: unicode_identifier

    execOnFileCreatedInDir:
      - /home/user/Downloads/

This is an example of a python script using the environment variables;

/opt/newfile.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import os

print(os.environ['OLIVETIN'])
print(os.environ['FILENAME'])
print(os.environ['FILESIZEBYTES'])
print(os.environ['FILEISDIR'])

Execution Request Variables

OliveTin injects two execution request variables into every action execution. They are available as template variables (e.g. in shell, shellAfterCompleted, or other template fields) and as environment variables passed to the process.

ot_username — The username of the user who started the execution. In templates (version 3k) use {{ .Arguments.ot_username }}; in the process environment it is OT_USERNAME. For unauthenticated or automated runs this may be guest, cron, or similar, depending on how the action was triggered.
ot_executionTrackingId — A unique identifier for this execution. In templates (version 3k) use {{ .Arguments.ot_executionTrackingId }}; in the process environment it is OT_EXECUTIONTRACKINGID. Useful for logging, correlating with the API or execution log, or idempotency in scripts.

In version 2k, the template syntax was {{ ot_username }} and {{ ot_executionTrackingId }} (without the .Arguments. prefix). Version 3k uses the .Arguments. form.

Example in a shell command (version 3k):

shell: echo "Run by {{ .Arguments.ot_username }} (execution {{ .Arguments.ot_executionTrackingId }})"

Example in a script using environment variables:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Started by $OT_USERNAME with tracking id $OT_EXECUTIONTRACKINGID"

In Execute after completion (shellAfterCompleted), the same variables are available as template variables (e.g. {{ .Arguments.ot_username }}, {{ .Arguments.ot_executionTrackingId }} in version 3k); user-defined argument values are not passed there.

The OLIVETIN environment variable

OliveTin sets the environment variable OLIVETIN to 1 for every action it runs. Scripts can check this variable to detect whether they are running inside OliveTin (for example, to adjust logging, skip interactive prompts, or enable OliveTin-specific behavior).

Example: detect OliveTin in a shell script

#!/bin/sh
if [ "$OLIVETIN" = "1" ]; then
  echo "Running under OliveTin"
else
  echo "Running outside OliveTin"
fi

Using process environment in templates

To use the process environment (the environment OliveTin was started with) inside action template fields such as shell or shellAfterCompleted, use the .Env template variable: {{ .Env.VAR_NAME }}. This substitutes the value at execution time. See Using .Env in template replacements for details and examples.

Notes

Argument names are converted to uppercase for environment variables, name: filename becomes FILENAME.
OliveTin sets OLIVETIN=1 in the process environment for every action; see The OLIVETIN environment variable above.
The execution request variables are exposed as OT_USERNAME and OT_EXECUTIONTRACKINGID in the process environment; see Execution Request Variables above.
The environment variables are passed into the execution context which uses a shell (/bin/sh on Linux), so it is also possible to use them with the $ notation in the shell line, like this; shell: echo $FILENAME for example.