PHP Dotenv

Get easily access to environment variables.

Installation

Open a command prompt into your project root folder and run:

composer require prinx/dotenv

Usage

Quick start

// Require composer autoload file if it has not been done yet.
require_once __DIR__ . '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

/*
 * Retrieve an environment variable. Returns null if variable not found.
 */
$hostname = env('DEV_DB_HOST');

/*
 * Retrieve an environment variable. Returns default value passed as second argument if variable not found
 */
$port = env('DEV_DB_PORT', 3306);

/*
 * Add a variable to the current loaded environment (will not save in the .env file)
 */
addenv('LOG_LEVEL', 'info');

/*
 * Wrtie variable to the env file. 
 * Will also automatically load the variable into the current environment.
 * If the file already contains the variable, the variable will be overwritten.
 */
persistenv('LOG_LEVEL', 'warn');
persistenv('LOG_LEVEL', 'debug');
persistenv('LOG_LEVEL', 'info');

/*
 * Get all environment variables
 */
env()
// OR
allenv();

Writing a .env file

The .env file format will be:

VARIABLE_NAME=value

For example:

SESSION_DRIVER=file
DEV_DB_HOST=localhost
DEV_DB_PORT=3306

PROD_DB_HOST=prod_db_ip
PROD_DB_PORT=3308 

As standard, the variable name is capital letter with underscores to separate words.

Comments

You can write comments in your .env file by preceding the comment by a hash (#). Example:

# Supported: file|database
SESSION_DRIVER=file

Types of values

By default, env variable will be retrieved as string, except booleans, and null.

String

You can use quotes to surround strings.

APP_NAME=My app
# or
APP_NAME="My app"

DB_HOST=173.0.0.0
# or
DB_HOST="173.0.0.0"

Boolean

The values true, "true" or 'true', will be got as the boolean true. The values false, "false" or 'false' will be got as the boolean false.

# Will be got as a boolean true
APP_DEBUG=true

# Will be got as a boolean false
APP_DEBUG=false

Same as:

APP_DEBUG="true"

APP_DEBUG="false"

Null

The values null, "null" or 'null', will be got as null.

# Will be got as a null
APP_DEBUG=null

APP_DEBUG="null"

Referring to another variable

You can refer to the value of another variable in your .env file by putting the name of the variable you are referring to variable inside ${}:

# .env
SESSION_DRIVER=mysql
MESSAGE=App based on ${SESSION_DRIVER} database

// PHP
echo env('MESSAGE'); // App based on mysql database

Loading a specific .env file

By default, the package automatically look for the .env file in the project root folder. But you can load the env file from anywhere by using the loadenv function:

// Require composer autoload file if it has not been done yet.
require_once __DIR__ . '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

loadenv('/path/to/somewhere/.env');

// Then everything goes as usual
$apiKey = env('API_KEY');

Using the Dotenv instance

You can also get or set a variable using the Dotenv class instance:

The Dotenv instance can be accessed by calling the dotenv() function:

$dotenv = dotenv();

Getting a variable

$hostname = dotenv()->get('DEV_DB_HOST');

// With a default value
$hostname = dotenv()->get('DEV_DB_HOST', 'localhost');

Getting all variables

$hostname = dotenv()->all();

// or use get without any parameter
$hostname = dotenv()->get();

Adding a variable to the current loaded environment

dotenv()->add('GUEST_NAME', 'john');

Writing a variable to the .env file

dotenv()->persist('GUEST_NAME', 'john');

Create your own Dotenv instance

You can create your own Dotenv instance just by using the Dotenv class:

use Prinx\Dotenv;

$dotenv = new Dotenv('path/to/.env');

$dotenv->get('VARIABLE');

Contributing

• Give a star to the repo ☺️
• Fork the repo.
• Correct a bug, add a new feature.
• Write tests.
• Create a pull request.

License

MIT