Describe the bug

In the past I set the process.env within the vite.config.js file to can access process.env variables. I need that because I'm still using jest and need the process.env variables there as well as in cypress.

I just update to the latest version of Vite v5.0.2. I can't access the process.env variables anymore as they are empty on my production build. Locally it is still working. I think it has something to do with the changes described here.

My config looks like:

export default defineConfig(({ command, mode }) => {
  const env = loadEnv(mode, process.cwd(), 'REACT_APP_');
  const enableHttps = false; // set to true, if you want to use HTTPS in dev environment

  // Populate NODE_ENV with the current mode
  // dev/qa/prod = production, otherwise development
  env.NODE_ENV = mode === 'development' ? 'development' : 'production';

  const envWithProcessPrefix = {
    'process.env': `${JSON.stringify(env)}`,
  };

  const plugins = [react() as PluginOption, svgrPlugin({ include: '**/*.svg' }) as PluginOption];

  const defaultConfig = {
    plugins,
    build: {
      outDir: 'build',
    },
    define: envWithProcessPrefix,
    server: {
      port: 3000,
      open: true,
      host: true
    },
  };

  // dev config
  if (command === 'serve') {
    const servePlugins = enableHttps ? [...plugins, mkcert() as PluginOption] : [...plugins];

    return {
      ...defaultConfig,
      plugins: servePlugins,
    };
  }

  return defaultConfig;
});

The define: envWithProcessPrefix still works locally for dev but not for the production build anymore. Any ideas? Thanks!

Reproduction

https://stackblitz.com/edit/vitejs-vite-jujfte?file=vite.config.js

Steps to reproduce

vite build --mode dev

and then run the build locally

System Info

System:
    OS: macOS 14.1.1
    CPU: (8) arm64 Apple M1 Pro
    Memory: 159.98 MB / 16.00 GB
    Shell: 5.9 - /bin/zsh
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.10.0 - /opt/homebrew/opt/node@20/bin/node
    npm: 10.2.3 - /opt/homebrew/opt/node@20/bin/npm
  Browsers:
    Chrome: 119.0.6045.159
    Safari: 17.1
  npmPackages:
    vite: ^5.0.2 => 5.0.2

Used Package Manager

npm

Logs

No response

Validations

• Follow our Code of Conduct
• Read the Contributing Guidelines.
• Read the docs.
• Check that there isn't already an issue that reports the same bug to avoid creating a duplicate.
• Make sure this is a Vite issue and not a framework-specific issue. For example, if it's a Vue SFC related bug, it should likely be reported to vuejs/core instead.
• Check that this is a concrete bug. For Q&A open a GitHub Discussion or join our Discord Chat Server.
• The provided reproduction is a minimal reproducible example of the bug.