What is .env?

.env files are used to securely store configuration settings, environment variables, and sensitive information for applications, allowing developers to manage environment-specific configurations without altering the codebase. They serve as a de facto standard for defining fake environment variables during local development, ensuring that global variables aren't set across an entire system unnecessarily. The main advantage of .env files is their ability to isolate environment-specific settings from the application's source code, which should remain consistent across different environments. However, .env files should never be committed to version control systems like Git because they are meant to vary between environments, unlike configuration values that remain constant and should be included in the codebase. To maintain consistency and prevent errors, it's crucial to differentiate between per-install and per-environment configurations and to use environment variables for managing the latter in testing and production scenarios.

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