👀 Views: 302 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-06-12

python dotenv environment-variables Python

Could someone explain I'm trying to figure out I tried several approaches but none seem to work... I'm currently using `python-dotenv` to manage my environment variables in a Python 3.10 application, but I'm working with issues when trying to load different `.env` files for various environments (development, testing, production). I've structured my project to have separate `.env` files, such as `.env.development`, `.env.testing`, and `.env.production`. Here's how I'm loading the environment variables: ```python import os from dotenv import load_dotenv def load_environment(env_file): load_dotenv(env_file) print('Loaded environment variables from:', env_file) if __name__ == '__main__': env = os.getenv('APP_ENV', 'development') if env == 'development': load_environment('.env.development') elif env == 'testing': load_environment('.env.testing') elif env == 'production': load_environment('.env.production') else: print('Unknown environment:', env) ``` However, when I run my application with `APP_ENV=testing python app.py`, I see that the environment variables from `.env.development` are still being loaded instead of `.env.testing`. I even tried adding `print(os.environ)` after `load_environment` to debug, and I noticed that the variables from `.env.development` continue. I have also ensured that the correct paths to the `.env` files are specified. What am I missing here? Is there a specific way to ensure that variables from the previous `.env` file are cleared before loading a new one? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm working on a API that needs to handle this. Any ideas what could be causing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated! My development environment is macOS. Any ideas what could be causing this?