I want to make a package that works out of the box with reasonable default variables, like defining some servers, ports etc. so that the code works for an average user like he expects it without further configuration. But I want this environment variables to be overriden if a .env file exists in order to allow configuration for other environments. I read that python-dotenv load_values will use defaults if no .env file exists, but there is no example on pypi how that would set up ideally.
3 Answers
Reading the comment of @chepner I think there might be a solution using merge. Didn't know about that feature yet.
from dotenv import dotenv_values
default_envs = {"MY_SERVER": "https://my-server.com"}
config = {
**default_envs,
**dotenv_values
}
This might be nice, because it allows for partial override and I don't need to go through all variables.
Comments are welcome.
2 Comments
Abdul Aziz Barkat
Note:
dotenv_values is a function, did you perhaps forget to put the brackets for the function call in the answer?
FordPrefect
You are probably right. Don't use that solution and went with using toml for config.
i think this way would work.
default_dict = {'API_KEY':'test'} #e.x for an api_key
try:
load_dotenv(find_dotenv())
api_key = os.getenv("API_KEY")
except:
api_key = default_dict['API_KEY']
3 Comments
FordPrefect
That would be an idea, thx.
chepner
Don't use a bare
except: at least use except Exception, if not an even more specific exception class for what you expect could be raised.Abdul Aziz Barkat
os.getenv("API_KEY", default_dict['API_KEY'] removes the need for the try-except.python_dotenv is just convenient way to load variable to environment
You can add an option to override an already existing env variable:
load_dotenv(override=True)
The order how env are defined can be found here.
To load the default value, just use os.getenv implementation
os.getenv(key, default = 'string value, or define None')
Although, you might not define value in order to make this work (define only key, without using =)
dotenv_valuesandos.environ?dotenvto provide defaults, but for the application to usedotenvto override defaults.