load-environment-variables-from-a-file.md

Load Environment Variables From A File

Category: Python

Environment variables in a Python application can be loaded from a .env file using the dotenv package.

Add the package:

pip install python-dotenv

Assume you have a .env file in the root directory of your project:

export DOMAIN="someserver.com" 
export SMTP_HOST="mail.${DOMAIN}" 
export BATCH_INTERVAL="2"

Load environment variables as follows:

from dotenv import load_dotenv

# Load .env file
load_dotenv()

# Get values from .env file
smtp_host = os.getenv("SMTP_HOST")
batch interval = os.getenv("BATCH INTERVAL")

Note: Add .env to your .gitignore file to ensure the file is not added to version control.

See python-dotenv for more details.