This guide serves as a comprehensive resource on Environment Variables, combining fundamental concepts, technical details, and DevOps strategies into a single structure. 1. Introduction: What Are Environment Variables? Environment variables are system-wide key-value pairs that define the context in which a process runs. They act as a layer of configuration stored by the Operating System (OS) and passed to programs at runtime. Instead of hard-coding values (like file paths, database URLs, or API keys) directly into source code, developers use environment variables to make applications dynamic and portable. Structure NAME=value Key: Usually uppercase (e.g., PATH , PORT ). Value: Strings, numbers, or paths (e.g., /usr/bin , 3000 ). 2. Why Do They Exist? The primary purpose of envi...