If you make requests fast enough some or all environment variables return null.

To reproduce:

1. Install fresh L5.
2. Edit /app/Http/Controllers/WelcomeController.php
3. Add dd(env('APP_ENV')); in the index function.
4. Make a bunch of requests in quick succession, i.e. hold down F5 for 2 seconds in a browser.

This bug occurs for me using WAMP 2.5 x64 (latest) on Windows 7. Haven't tested on *nix yet.

Duplicate. This is a known issue with php. We've discussed it here before. Feel free to search for the issue.

For anyone else wondering why this happens:

866a8cf#commitcomment-9767647

#7354

#8187

Is there anyone working on a fix at PHP? I can't rely on the whole .env system if it's going to randomly crap out on me.

Is the only workaround to hard-code values into config files right now?

Another workaround is to use php artisan config:cache for your production environment.

The artisan command didn't work for me. The same behavior still happens.

The artisan command didn't work for me. The same behavior still happens.

You mean dd(env('APP_ENV')); behaviour? Obviously that expected which why I said "for your productionenvironment". https://github.com/laravel/framework/blob/5.0/src/Illuminate/Foundation/Bootstrap/DetectEnvironment.php#L28

So to be clear:

1. In, say, /app/config/app.php add:

    'env' => env('APP_ENV')

2. Cache the config files using php artisan config:cache

3. Instead of calling env('APP_ENV'); use \Config::get('app.env'); to avoid the issue.

4. Use config:cache for every deployment.

This is like death by 1001 papercuts, just one more thing to worry about. Why was this feature added before the PHP bug was fixed? I don't get it...

I don't get why would you need to cache APP_ENV, you cache other value such as DB_USERNAME, QUEUE_DRIVER etc. This way your app remain working all the time as this code is already resolved in the cached config.php.

Why was this feature added

http://12factor.net/config

Why not use PHP (just like Laravel 4)?

Well, if that the case, you need a new "duplicate" configuration for your none PHP app, if you want to use Python or Go for some of the background/queue process.

I don't need to, APP_ENV was just an example. I'm caching other things.

I'm not asking why the feature was added, I'm asking why now. Why before the PHP bug is fixed?

Hey @tylercubell,
Is there any news about this issue?
Right now I'm setting the "production values" as default in my config files like: (db_password, *_production_password_)

It is still happening in 5.2 or someone solve the issue?
Thanks.

Hi, I'm encountering the same issue here, no clear solution yet ?
I still try to believe that Laravel is a great framework, having to worry about such
issue is kind of unexpected and displeasing.

Please can the docs be updated, to reflect the requirement to use config:cache?! I just lost a few hours on trying to understand why env() was behaving unpredictably, which seems particularly futile now I discover it's been discussed here a few times.

This is documented in our upgrading guide. If there are any other places you'd like to see this in the docs, we'd be very grateful if you could send a PR please. :)

Thanks for the quick response! So wait, is the docs site in Gitbhub, is that what you mean?

This page https://laravel.com/docs/5.2/configuration#determining-the-current-environment makes it sound like using .env would be a great thing to do, but even in dev I'm seeing it toggle between the values I want and null (where, presumably, default values don't exist)

From reading "Do something with dotenv finally #13906" I understand that there is not a real solution for it on Apache and what you need to do is to run: "php artisan config:cache" in commend. I think it's a MUST part in starting laravel project docs.

Thank you @GrahamCampbell for sharing with us the commend.

same issue with me

upgrade my php to 7.0.10 function env get null value

This is a known issue with PHP. Make sure you run php artisan config:cache and never read env variables from outside the config files.

run php artisan config:clear will fix the env null value drama

Not clear, but cache.

Hi,

when calling \Config::get('app.env'); I'm still getting local, although I changed the env to production.
env(APP_ENV) returns null.

I'm using a thread safe php installation. Do I need to get the unsafe version?

PS: Workaround - get App:environment() from within App and pass it to the view

php artisan config:cache works for me on Windows 10, PHP 5.6, Apache 2.4.
Is this bug for PHP, Windows or Apache?

Hi @decadence ,
It is not a PHP/Windows/Apache BUG, it is a ".env" known bug which can be solved with:
php artisan config:cache as you said.

Good luck.

I am facing the same issue. And the sad part is, php artisan config:cache can't fix the issue. In my development environment(Mac OS sierra, php 7.0.12, laravel 5.3) if works fine, but in my production server(Ubuntu 14.04.4, php 7.0.11, laravel 5.3), it is not working. Any solution?

@milon
yes... try to do
php artisan cache:clear
and then
php artisan config:cache

@llioor php artisan config:cache first calls the config:clear commad.

    public function fire()
    {
        $this->call('config:clear');

        $config = $this->getFreshConfiguration();

        $this->files->put(
            $this->laravel->getCachedConfigPath(), '<?php return '.var_export($config, true).';'.PHP_EOL
        );

        $this->info('Configuration cached successfully!');
    }

Anyway, I tried it as well. No luck.

How can I solve this problem with lumen ?

@liuyunzhuge in lumen you have to load the config file in bootstrap/app.php file like this-

$app->configure('config_file_name');

if you already do that, then comment the line and clear cache. then uncomment it again. I don't know why, but it worked for me.

run this :
php artisan config:clear

I recently had this issue. it was fixed after I restarted the server.

Here is another solution I got from S.O

php artisan config:clear did the trick.

php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear
service apache2 restart (just in case)

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/39046560/laravel-5-2-envapp-env-does-not-work-in-production

What we should do if we are trying to use env() outside the config files?

In my middleware I have something like this:

public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        if($request->header('api-token') != env('WATAPE_KEY')){
            abort(400);
        }
        
        return $next($request);
    }

Should I add my custom variables inside of a config file somehow and then call them with another function that is not env()?

UPDATE:

Yes, that solves the problem.

I created config/watape.php

<?php

return  [

    'api_key' => env('WATAPE_KEY'),
    
];

and now my middleware looks like this:

public function handle($request, Closure $next)
    {
        if($request->header('api-token') != config('watape.api_key')){
            abort(400);
        }
        
        return $next($request);
    }

Finally clear your cache and rebuild it again. I find this cleaner than calling directly env()

As someone not using laravel that often, it would have been nice for the first comment to mention how you should never use env variables directly and instead reference them in config files.

You should avoid calling env()in your application. In some environments like testing, the env() function returns null. A good practice on laravel is to put variables in a config file and to use config() function instead of env() https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/configuration#configuration-caching. You can also cache your config files with php artisan config:cache to speed up your application.

I ran into this issue when configuring Monolog in bootstrap/app.php. I was wanting to use different logging configurations depending on APP_ENV. Is there a recommended way to do this? Can Monolog be configured further down the line once APP_ENV is available to check?

don't use php artisan serve

What you can do is (re)load the .env content. This will allow you to have access even during production and with your cached config file.

echo 'APP_NAME='.env('APP_NAME').PHP_EOL; // outputs `null`
with(new \Dotenv\Dotenv(base_path()))->load();
echo 'APP_NAME='.env('APP_NAME').PHP_EOL; // outputs your APP_NAME