Can I host Laravel without a .env file?

[tepid hemlock]

It seems I'm getting a HTTP 500 error due to: No application encryption key has been specified.

However I don't have any .env file on the production environment.

I have set APP_KEY and other related environmental variables into the env vars (thus printenv shows them), I thought this would be enough?

[old salmon]

Yes, as .env files are just replacements for environment variables proper. So if you define actual environment variables on your production server, you don’t need an .env file.

[white sky]

you can also just define your production values as the 2nd parameter of the env() functions in your config files

[old salmon]

I hope you’re joking…?

[white sky]

not saying its the best idea, but its possible

[old salmon]

It’s a terrible idea. You want production credentials and secrets nowhere near your source code.

[white sky]

except when PHP fails to load the ENV variables on rapid concurrent requests due to the nature of the request handler - https://github.com/laravel/framework/issues/8191

[old salmon]

I fail to see why this then means you have to stick production values in your source code? 🤷‍♂️

Run config:cache on deployment. Laravel app then never needs to call env

[tepid hemlock]

Hmm, config:cache doesn't seem to work either 🤔

Background info: I'm using a hosting service that hosts Docker via Kubernetes... so I have 3 services:

• CLI (php-cli, main service, does composer install in the Dockerfile)
• NGINX (nginx, exposed port, has copy of the files)
• PHP (php-fpm, no bash available, just running PHP-FPM)

I can ssh into cli and nginx services and can confirm printenv has APP_KEY and all other related env vars that I added to the hosting environment.

So I'm not too sure why those env vars are not read for this Laravel app 🤔

It could be that the Dockerfile needs those env vars to be added in a different scope, they are added as runtime scope for all envs of the project (thus production, development, staging, any PR-envs I spin up etc.)

[tepid hemlock]

mmm I think I have to do these commands in post rollout task after deployments

php artisan config:cache    // flush all cached env variable
php artisan config:clear    // repopulate all the env variable
php artisan cache:clear     // flush all the cached content