Merge pull request #985 from pydanny/dot_env_issue

load .env file from root dir only if DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE is True

docs/settings.rst

@@ -3,7 +3,14 @@ Settings
 
 This project relies extensively on environment settings which **will not work with Apache/mod_wsgi setups**. It has been deployed successfully with both Gunicorn/Nginx and even uWSGI/Nginx.
 
-For configuration purposes, the following table maps environment variables to their Django setting:
+For configuration purposes, the following table maps environment variables to their Django setting and project settings:
+
+
+======================================= =========================== ============================================== ======================================================================
+Environment Variable                    Django Setting              Development Default                            Production Default
+======================================= =========================== ============================================== ======================================================================
+DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE                READ_DOT_ENV_FILE           False                                          False
+======================================= =========================== ============================================== ======================================================================
 
 
 ======================================= =========================== ============================================== ======================================================================

{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/config/settings/common.py

@@ -16,7 +16,21 @@ ROOT_DIR = environ.Path(__file__) - 3  # ({{ cookiecutter.project_slug }}/config
 APPS_DIR = ROOT_DIR.path('{{ cookiecutter.project_slug }}')
 
 env = environ.Env()
-env.read_env()
+
+# Load operating system environment variables and then prepare to use them
+env = environ.Env()
+
+# .env file, should load only in development environment
+READ_DOT_ENV_FILE = env('DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE', default=False)
+
+if READ_DOT_ENV_FILE:
+    # Operating System Environment variables have precedence over variables defined in the .env file,
+    # that is to say variables from the .env files will only be used if not defined
+    # as environment variables.
+    env_file = str(ROOT_DIR.path('.env'))
+    print('Loading : {}'.format(env_file))
+    env.read_env(env_file)
+    print('The .env file has been loaded. See common.py for more information')
 
 # APP CONFIGURATION
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

{{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/env.example

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpass
 POSTGRES_USER=postgresuser
 
 # General settings
+# DJANGO_READ_DOT_ENV_FILE=True
 DJANGO_ADMIN_URL=
 DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=config.settings.production
 DJANGO_SECRET_KEY=CHANGEME!!!