Undefined function "env" in controller when trying to access secrets

[lcoffin]

I am trying to use secrets as explained on this page:
https://symfony.com/doc/current/configuration/secrets.html

I have defined my secrets and they show up properly using php bin/console secrets:list --reveal. They seem to be working fine when referenced inside a .yaml file (my database password is being passed in correctly), but I can't figure out how to access the values within PHP -- inside a controller specifically.

Based on this example:

I'm trying to simply do:

          public function new(Request $request ...) {
                ... basic code here ...

                $secret = env('MY_SECRET');

                .... use the secret here ....
         }

But I get an error Attempted to call undefined function "env" from namespace "App\Controller".

I see tons of examples in the documentation talking about using 'env()' ... but it is not clear if I need to include a specific class in my controller to access it. Does the env() function only work within "configuration" classes? If so, then how do I get the secret value inside a controller so I can actually do something with it.

I've also tried:

$secret = '%env(MY_SECRET)%';

and

$secret = $_ENV['MY_SECRET']; // also tried in $_SERVER[]

but those aren't working either.

I have confirmed that I have symfony/dotenv installed (v7.3.2). Doing php bin/console debug:dotenv does not show any of the secrets configured using php bin/console secrets:set

I'm running Symfony 7.3.6 and PHP 8.4.14. PHP has Sodium support installed/enabled.

Thanks

[MatTheCat]

If you want to autowire an env var to a controller argument with no configuration you can use the Autowire attribute’s env parameter: https://symfony.com/doc/current/service_container/autowiring.html#fixing-non-autowireable-arguments

[lcoffin]

Thanks, but that doesn't seem to work for me. I tried the following per the instructions you referenced:

final class MyDataController extends AbstractController
{
    public function __construct(
        private EntityManagerInterface $entityManager,

        #[Autowire(env: 'MY_SECRET')]
        private string $mySecret,
    ) {}

but I get the following error:

Cannot autowire service "App\Controller\MyDataController": argument "$mySecret" of method "__construct()" is type-hinted "string", you should configure its value explicitly.

[lcoffin]

Ok, I think I figured out a solution... I removed the #[Autowire ...] line above, then manually wired the argument to the secret env variable in config/services.yaml per these instructions: https://symfony.com/doc/current/service_container.html#services-manually-wire-args but using the '%env(...)' syntax mentioned on the secrets page:

 App\Controller\MyDataController:
        arguments:
            $mySecret: '%env(MY_SECRET)%'

It might be really helpful if the docs on using secrets includes instructions like this to show folks how to access their secrets in controllers. That might help clarify it for others.

[MatTheCat]

You can definitely use the Autowire attribute to inject secrets. Since the documentation says they can be used as environment variables there should be no need to document how to use them elsewhere.

[stof]

have you added the use statement for the Autowire class (so that the attribute is the right attribute) ?

[lcoffin]

have you added the use statement for the Autowire class (so that the attribute is the right attribute) ?

Duh, sorry. Yeah, that was why my #[Autowire(env: 'MY_SECRET')] wasn't working. Now it works (without the services.yaml changes)! Thanks to both of you!