Over the years working with Laravel, I came up with one important rule. If you must utilize the values stored in your .env file, make sure to exclusively employ the env() function solely within your config/*.php files.
"But why?" you might say...
When your configuration is cached in a production environment, such as by executing the php artisan config:cache command, your application compiles the configuration along with any variables from .env into a cache file. This cache file is then exclusively loaded during requests. Consequently, any env() calls within the application will result in null since the variable no longer exists.
Top comments (2)
Great advice! Keeping
env()calls withinconfig/*.phpfiles is indeed crucial for Laravel applications, especially in production environments. It ensures smooth operation even after caching configurations. Thanks for sharing this important tip!env('VARIABLE') ?? 'default value';
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