.env files not loaded when CWD is not workspace root

[kylebjordahl]

Current Behavior

When running the Nx CLI from a directory within the workspace (but not the root folder) .env files in the project directories fail to load.

Root .env files also fail to load, but it is unclear whether this is expected (are the .env files listed as 10-18 on the docs intended to be relative to the CWD or explicitly in the workspace root?)

Expected Behavior

If I have a .env file apps/my-app/.env.local and I run cd apps && nx run my-app:serve it should load the environment variables from apps/my-app/.env.local

GitHub Repo

https://github.com/kylebjordahl/nx-examples/tree/kb/env-loading-repro

Steps to Reproduce

1. run a target which consumes an environment variable loaded from a .env file in the project root from a directory which is not the workspace root

(in the reproduction repo, see apps/env-printer/README.md)

Nx Report

# Note this is from the original repo where the issue was observed, not the reproduction

Node   : 20.12.1
OS     : linux-arm64
pnpm   : 8.15.6

nx                 : 18.0.7
@nx/js             : 18.0.7
@nx/jest           : 18.0.7
@nx/linter         : 18.0.7
@nx/eslint         : 18.0.7
@nx/workspace      : 18.0.7
@nx/cypress        : 18.0.7
@nx/devkit         : 18.0.7
@nx/eslint-plugin  : 18.0.7
@nx/plugin         : 18.0.7
@nx/react          : 18.0.7
@nx/remix          : 18.0.7
@nx/storybook      : 18.0.7
@nrwl/tao          : 18.0.7
@nx/vite           : 18.0.7
@nx/web            : 18.0.7
typescript         : 5.3.3
---------------------------------------
Community plugins:
@nxlv/python : 18.0.1
---------------------------------------
Local workspace plugins:
         @rh-plugins/cdk-python
         @rh-plugins/protobuf
         @rh-plugins/python

Failure Logs

No response

Package Manager Version

No response

Operating System

• macOS
• Linux
• Windows
• Other (Please specify)

Additional Information

No response