How to load values from a dotenv file.

Basic

This approach is more manual but does not rely on package.

Store values in a shell file.

  • .env 
      FOO=bar
  BUZZ=123

Then set the values as export variables.

$ export $(< .env | xargs)

Run a script that uses the variables.

  • main.py 
      import from os import environ


  class Config:
      """
      """

      FOO = environ.get('FOO')
      BUZZ = environ.get('BUZZ')

Using Dotenv package

How to load a dotenv file, then use the values in your Python application, without using the export command.

Install

Install python-dotenv. Use the -U flag if installing globally to restrict to your user, or omit if in a virtual environment (recommended).

$ pip install python-dotenv

Configure values

Create a .env file which follows Bash Shell syntax, with content such as:

  • .env 
      # A comment that will be ignored.
  REDIS_ADDRESS=localhost:6379
  MEANING_OF_LIFE=42
  MULTILINE_VAR="hello\nworld"

Load

Load the file in Python.

  • settings.py 
      from os import environ

  from dotenv import load_dotenv


  load_dotenv()
  # OR
  load_dotenv(verbose=True)

  # OR
  from pathlib import Path 
  env_path = Path('.') / '.env'
  load_dotenv(dotenv_path=env_path)

  SECRET_KEY = environ("EMAIL")
  DATABASE_PASSWORD = environ("DATABASE_PASSWORD")