Laravel 5 doesn't read values from dot ENV files

Question

I don't know if this question is relevant or not. LARAVEL 5 is still in developmental phase. I have pulled LARAVEL 5 after watching one of the Laracast video about new features in LARAVEL 5. I couldn't resist to wait for its formal release.

I named the local environment dot file as .env.local.php. But for some reason I am unable to get the the values from this dot file when using $_ENV['KEY'].

I am quite sure that I have configured the environment correctly. When doing $app->environment() shows the correct environment. Has it been changed in LARAVEL 5 the way we get the values from dot files or am I missing something ?

possible duplicate of [What's the correct way to set ENV variables in Laravel 5?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/26346299/whats-the-correct-way-to-set-env-variables-in-laravel-5) — Moshe Katz, Nov 07 '14 at 17:22

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:45

By default in environment.php file you have something like that:

if (file_exists(__DIR__.'/../.env'))
{
    Dotenv::load(__DIR__.'/../');
}

so only .env file is being read (notice .env not .env.php - so you should rename your file - or you can add as 2nd parameter file name .env.php if you want). Any other environment files (.local.env) are not being read by default - you will need to load them manually.

If you don't have such code by default, you should probably update/install Laravel 5 again (changes appear very often)

Now, I don't know what method you use, but you can put in your .env file also your environment name in for example APP_ENV variable, create .local.env file with content you want and then you could use in environment.php file:

if (file_exists(__DIR__.'/../.env'))
{
    Dotenv::load(__DIR__.'/../');

    if (getenv('APP_ENV') && file_exists(__DIR__.'/../.' .getenv('APP_ENV') .'.env')) {
        echo "loading";
        Dotenv::load(__DIR__ . '/../', '.' . getenv('APP_ENV') . '.env');
    }

}

If you don't want to do it this way, you can probably change the other and load env file you want based on $env assuming you use PC based environment detection.

If it's unclear you can also look at What's the correct way to set ENV variables in Laravel 5?

Very clear now. So it seems Mr. Otwell has favoured something else over PC based environment detection. Although I liked PC based, but again he must have good reason behind it — Nirmalz Thapaz, Oct 15 '14 at 02:35

Laravel 5 doesn't read values from dot ENV files

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