Bad Option: --env-file=./env/.env.dev

I am unable to load the env file via start script in my package.json file because of which I am not able to work on my project, earlier with all these stated settings it used to work fine.

package.json file:

"scripts": {
        "start:dev": "node --loader ts-node/esm --env-file=./env/.env.dev  source/server.ts",
    }

Env file:

AUTHENTICATION_API_URL="http://localhost:4000/login"
GRAPHQL_API_URL="http://localhost:4000/graphql"
HOST="localhost"
NODE_ENV="development"
DB_PORT="3306"
SRVR_PORT="5000"
DB_PWD= my_secret
DB_NAME= my_secret
DB_USR="root"
DB_LOGGING=false

server.ts:

const port =
  process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? process.env.SRVR_PORT || 80 : 4000;

  console.log("{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{");
  console.log(port);
  console.log("{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{");

tsconfig.json file:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "esModuleInterop": true,
    "lib": ["es2020"],
    "module": "NodeNext",
    "preserveConstEnums": true,
    "moduleResolution": "NodeNext",
    "strict": true,
    "sourceMap": false,
    //"target": "es2022",
    "target": "es6",
    "types": ["node"],
    "outDir": "dist",
    "rootDir": "./",
    "experimentalDecorators":true,
    "emitDecoratorMetadata": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true
  },
  "ts-node": {
    "esm": true,
    // needed for build system and auto reload
    "swc": true,
    // https://github.com/TypeStrong/ts-node/issues/422
    "experimentalSpecifierResolution": "node"
  },
  "include": ["source/**/*", "package.json"],
  "exclude": ["node_modules"],
}

It keeps showing me this error :

node --loader ts-node/esm --env-file=./.env/.env.dev  source/server.ts 
node: bad option: --env-file=./.env/.env.dev

I do not how to resolve this.

This is because Node.js does not natively support the --env-file option. This option is not a standard Node.js CLI flag, which is why you're seeing the bad option error.

To load environment variables from a .env file in a Node.js project, you typically use the dotenv package.

1. npm install dotenv ts-node

2. Update your script:

   "scripts": {
     "start:dev": "node -r dotenv/config --loader ts-node/esm source/server.ts dotenv_config_path=./env/.env.dev"
   }
   

3. Update server.ts:

   import dotenv from 'dotenv';
   
   // Load the .env file
   
   dotenv.config({ path: './env/.env.dev' });
   
   const port = process.env.NODE_ENV === "production" ? process.env.SRVR_PORT || 80 : 4000;