Environment variables #

This page is for developers who configure a DXP project. A Symfony project reads its settings from environment variables; the skeleton keeps defaults in .env and your host's values in .env.local. All variables below are the ones the skeleton's guide (section 4) documents.

Contents #

1. The files and the rule
2. Application
3. Database
4. JWT
5. Search, cache, mail and the rest
6. Keeping a reference without secrets
7. Checking what Symfony sees

The files and the rule #

Real environment variables set by the web server or the process manager win over the files.

Application #

APP_ENV=prod                  # or dev
APP_SECRET=<32 random hex characters>

APP_DEBUG and APP_HTTP_CACHE are set in the web server configuration in the guide's examples (Web server setup).

Database #

MySQL or MariaDB from parts:

DATABASE_DRIVER=pdo_mysql
DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
DATABASE_PORT=3306
DATABASE_NAME=your_db_name
DATABASE_USER=your_db_user
DATABASE_PASSWORD=your_db_password
DATABASE_CHARSET=utf8mb4
DATABASE_COLLATION=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci
DATABASE_VERSION=mariadb-10.6.0    # or 8.0 for MySQL

PostgreSQL uses DATABASE_DRIVER=pdo_pgsql, port 5432, DATABASE_CHARSET=utf8 and DATABASE_VERSION=16. A full DSN in DATABASE_URL replaces the parts. SQLite uses only the DSN and a synchronous messenger transport:

DATABASE_URL="sqlite:///%kernel.project_dir%/var/data_%kernel.environment%.db"
MESSENGER_TRANSPORT_DSN=sync://

Details: Databases, SQLite for development.

JWT #

JWT_SECRET_KEY=%kernel.project_dir%/config/jwt/private.pem
JWT_PUBLIC_KEY=%kernel.project_dir%/config/jwt/public.pem
JWT_PASSPHRASE=<64 random hex characters>

The key files are generated per installation and never committed (JWT authentication).

Search, cache, mail and the rest #

For test mail in development keep MAILER_DSN=null://null, and use example.invalid addresses for test users, so no mail reaches a real person.

Keeping a reference without secrets #

cp .env.local .env.local.dist
$EDITOR .env.local.dist          # replace every password, secret and passphrase with a placeholder
git add .env.local.dist

Read the file once more before you commit it.

Checking what Symfony sees #

php bin/console debug:dotenv               # which files were loaded and the values they set
php bin/console debug:container --env-vars # environment variables used by the container

Related pages #

• Installing with the skeleton
• Deploying
• DXP skeleton
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.