django 2 not able to load env variables from the .env file to setting.py file

Question

I tried to load environment variables from a file named .env to settings.py file here i created the .env file and settings file same folder.

this is my .env file

DEBUG=on
SECRET_KEY=ksmdfw3324@#jefm
DATABASE_URL=psql://urser:[email protected]:8458/database
SQLITE_URL=sqlite:///my-local-sqlite.db
CACHE_URL=memcache://127.0.0.1:11211,127.0.0.1:11212,127.0.0.1:11213
REDIS_URL=rediscache://127.0.0.1:6379/1? 
client_class=django_redis.client.DefaultClient&password=ungithubbed-secret


MYSQL_DATABASE = student
MYSQL_USERNAME = root 
SECRET_KEY=secret-key

this is my setting.py file

import os

from os.path import join, dirname
from dotenv import load_dotenv

dotenv_path = join(dirname(__file__), '.env')

load_dotenv(dotenv_path)

# Accessing variables.
dbname = os.getenv('MYSQL_DATABASE')
secret_key = os.getenv('SECRET_KEY')

# Using variables.
print(dabname)
print(secret_key)

i installed pip install -U python-dotenv

Issue is i am not able to get environment variable inside settings file

while trying python manage.py runserver i am getting this error

C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\dotenv\main.py:65: UserWarning: File doesn't exist
warnings.warn("File doesn't exist {}".format(self.dotenv_path))
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "manage.py", line 28, in <module>
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 371, in 
execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\django\core\management\__init__.py", line 317, in execute
settings.INSTALLED_APPS
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 56, in __getattr__
self._setup(name)
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 43, in _setup
self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\django\conf\__init__.py", line 106, in __init__
mod = importlib.import_module(self.SETTINGS_MODULE)
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36- 
32\lib\importlib\__init__.py", line 126, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 994, in _gcd_import
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 971, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 955, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 665, in _load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 678, in exec_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "C:\xampp\htdocs\epitastudent\epitastudent\settings.py", line 25, in 
<module>
load_dotenv()
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\dotenv\main.py", line 255, in load_dotenv
return DotEnv(f, 
verbose=verbose).set_as_environment_variables(override=override)
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\site- 
packages\dotenv\main.py", line 98, in set_as_environment_variables
os.environ[k] = v
File "C:\Users\mehul\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36-32\lib\os.py", 
line 675, in __setitem__
 self.putenv(key, value)
 ValueError: embedded null character

I am not sure how to create development and production environment variable and about this embedded null character. pls help me any one Thanks in advance

Edit: I got now .env file to inside settings

import os
import environ
root = environ.Path(__file__) - 3 # three folder back (/a/b/c/ - 3 = /)
env = environ.Env(DEBUG=(bool, False),) # set default values and casting
environ.Env.read_env() # reading .env file
print(os.getenv('DATABASE_NAME'))

How can i differentiate development env credentials and production credentials

Solution 1

Try this instead:

import os
import environ

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
environ.Env.read_env(env_file=os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '.env'))

Solution 2

For future Googlers here's another approach. Inside manage.py add:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()

Now you can do the following anywhere else in your project (including settings.py) to get access to environment variables:

import os
os.environ.get("NAME")

Solution 3

I was unable to load environment variables using load_dotenv() in Python version 3.5 - later versions were working fine.

The workaround is explicitly include the folder containing .env in the path. So, assuming folder project contains .env, settings.py will have following lines:

import os 
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
from dotenv import load_dotenv 
load_dotenv(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "project", ".env"))

Solution 4

I think there are mainly two packages to use pip install django-environ and pip install python-dotenv

I choose to use dotenv, as django-environ give me some error. Error: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty Below is my working solution, notice that it is square bracket [] when calling os.environ.

My version is Django==2.2.6, python==3.7.5

settings.py

import os
from dotenv import load_dotenv

BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
load_dotenv(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '.env'))
SECRET_KEY = os.environ['SECRET_KEY']

and the .env file is storing in the current directory with

.env

export SECRET_KEY="xxxxxx"
export DB_NAME = "xxx"

View more solutions

Comments

[Islam Murtazaev]

You can create .env.production, .env.dev and .env.local, then use docker containers for different environments.

[somesh]

@lvan thanks for reply not working i tried this also. It is giving ValueError: embedded null character

[Brendan Metcalfe]

how do you then assign it to do something like env.bool('DEBUG', default=False) ??

[Alex Burkov]

if I understand you correctly, I used something like that env = environ.Env(DEBUG=(bool, False))