title: Nodejs Mongoose Error: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND undefined undefined:27017
body: <p>I'm trying to switch to mongoose from using just the native mongodb and having some trouble.</p>
  
  <p>Connecting to the db as I did previously works fine:</p>
  
  <pre><code>var db;
  
  var passDb = function(req, res, next) {
      if (!db) {
          mongo.connect(process.env.MONGOLAB_URI, function(err, database) {
              if (err) throw err;
              db = database;
  
              req.db = db;
            next();
          });
      } else {
        req.db = db;
        next();
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But the way I'm trying to do it now throws an error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>var mongoose     = require('mongoose');
  
  var Poll         = require('./app/models/poll');
  
  mongoose.connect(process.env.MONGOLAB_URI);
  var db = mongoose.connection;
  db.on('error', console.error.bind(console, 'connection error:'));
  db.once('open', function() {
    // we're connected!
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>connection error: { [MongoError: getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND undefined undefined:27017
  ]
    name: 'MongoError',
    message: 'getaddrinfo ENOTFOUND undefined undefined:27017' }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any ideas what is causing this?</p>
  
  <p>edit: it works when I use the database uri directly, but not when I use the environment variable. I have checked and triple checked that everything is typed correctly, it refuses to use the environment variable and I have to put it directly in the code :S</p>