Testcafe - Test command line argument outside test case

However, I cannot print or use any variables outside the test cases.  

Please use a programming way to run TestCafe. I've changed you code example (test.js) and created a file that runs TestCafe programmatically (run.js). Put these files into a folder and perform command 'node run.js --env value' in your terminal. Then you will see the following output:

'*** A SAMPLE CONSOLE OUTPUT ***'
Getting Started
value

test.js

import { Selector } from 'testcafe';
import minimist from 'minimist';

const args = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));
const env = args.env;

console.log('*** A SAMPLE CONSOLE OUTPUT ***'); 

fixture `Getting Started`
  .page `http://devexpress.github.io/testcafe/example`;

test('My first test', async t => {
  console.log(env); // prints
  await t
    .typeText('#developer-name', 'John Smith')
    .wait(1000)
    .click('#submit-button')
    .expect(Selector('#article-header').innerText).eql('Thank you, John Smith!');
});

run.js
const createTestCafe = require('testcafe');
let runner           = null;

createTestCafe('localhost', 1337, 1338, void 0, true)
    .then(testcafe => {
        runner = testcafe.createRunner();
    })
    .then(() => {
         return runner
            .src('test.js')
            .browsers('chrome')
            .run()
            .then(failedCount => {
                console.log(`Finished. Count failed tests:${failedCount}`);
                process.exit(failedCount)
            });
    })
    .catch(error => {
        console.log(error);
        process.exit(1);
    });

A solution to accomplish this is:

1) Create a separate config.js file that will handle your custom command-line options:

import * as minimist from 'minimist';

const args = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));

// get the options --env=xxx --user=yyy from the command line
export const config = {
  env: args.env,
  user: args.user,
};

2) In you test file:

remove any code outside the fixture and the test methods.

import the config file and inject it in the TestController context

get the command args via the TestController context

import 'testcafe';
import { Selector } from 'testcafe';
import { config } from './config';

fixture('Getting Started')
  .beforeEach(async (t) => {
    // inject config in the test context
    t.ctx.currentConfig = config;
  });

test('My first test', async (t) => {
  // retrieve cli args from the test context
  const currentConfig = t.ctx.currentConfig;
  console.log(`env=${currentConfig.env}`);
});