How do I convert the google private key for the google calendar api into a env file?

Question

I'm trying to use JWT to access the google calendar api. I'm using Node to make my call. How can I get this line of JSON into my .env file:

  "private_key": "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvAIBADAVznWpHSDMU9JXzBwdm1w4ILex6G8tEdEXa3\nr1YPynJ9aT9tPgrDXXnwMMrRd8q2Kvkqi6WaYMkCgYAvSsRQWuOGEkxVRkKG2VHYNW+XzMaiiHmUznfll/5\nsmYDwtRzhqN9eAsEjfj2K99lcJnd8fCKib5a5Ga+kgSBb64jrj9UOJUbOZJDVh4/\nckglGM61BAR+gdl3tCXY4w==\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n"

(I shortened the key in this post to keep it safe and to keep this post clean).

I'm following this guide on setting up jwt to access the google calendar api: https://dev.to/megazear7/google-calendar-api-integration-made-easy-2a68

I can get it to work fine if I have the key as a string in the index.js file like this:

const GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY = "-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvAIBADAVznWpHSDMU9JXzBwdm1w4ILex6G8tEdEXa3\nr1YPynJ9aT9tPgrDXXnwMMrRd8q2Kvkqi6WaYMkCgYAvSsRQWuOGEkxVRkKG2VHYNW+XzMaiiHmUznfll/5\nsmYDwtRzhqN9eAsEjfj2K99lcJnd8fCKib5a5Ga+kgSBb64jrj9UOJUbOZJDVh4/\nckglGM61BAR+gdl3tCXY4w==\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n"

But when I try to set this key in my .env file, like this:

GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY = -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEvAIBADAVznWpHSDMU9JXzBwdm1w4ILex6G8tEdEXa3\nr1YPynJ9aT9tPgrDXXnwMMrRd8q2Kvkqi6WaYMkCgYAvSsRQWuOGEkxVRkKG2VHYNW+XzMaiiHmUznfll/5\nsmYDwtRzhqN9eAsEjfj2K99lcJnd8fCKib5a5Ga+kgSBb64jrj9UOJUbOZJDVh4/\nckglGM61BAR+gdl3tCXY4w==\n-----END PRIVATE KEY-----\n

and then access it in my index.js file like this:

const GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY = process.env.GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY

I get this error:

{"errors":{"library":"PEM routines","function":"get_name","reason":"no start line","code":"ERR_OSSL_PEM_NO_START_LINE"}}

Any thoughts? :)

Answer 1

When you put your key on .env, extra slashes are added on the string.

process.env.GOOGLE_PRIVATE_KEY.replace(new RegExp("\\\\n", "\g"), "\n")

This will fix it.