ENV Exporter

A simple PHP package to generate .env files from example templates using system environment variables.

What does this package do?

When you deploy an application, you usually have a .env.example file with all the environment variable keys your application needs. The problem is: how do you generate the actual .env file with the correct values from your server environment?

This package solves that problem. It reads the keys from your .env.example file and creates a new .env file containing only the variables that exist in your system environment.

Why is this useful?

• Security: Only exports variables that your application actually needs (defined in .env.example)
• Automation: No manual copy-paste of environment variables during deployment
• Consistency: Ensures your .env file always matches your .env.example structure

Requirements

• PHP 7.1 or higher

How it works

1. The package reads your .env.example file
2. It extracts all the variable keys (for example: APP_NAME, DB_HOST, REDIS_URL)
3. For each key, it checks if that variable exists in the system environment
4. If the variable exists, it adds the key and value to the output
5. It writes the result to your .env file

Supported formats in .env.example

The package understands these formats:

# Simple key=value
APP_NAME=Laravel

# Empty value
APP_ENV=

# Quoted values
APP_NAME="My App"

# With export prefix
export APP_NAME=Laravel

# Comments are ignored
# This is a comment
; This is also a comment

Installation

composer require tofuma/env-exporter

Usage

Option 1: Using the static method in PHP code

<?php

use Tofuma\EnvExporter\EnvExporter;

// Generate .env file from .env.example
EnvExporter::generate('.env.example', '.env');

// Or get the key-value pairs as an array (without writing to file)
$pairs = EnvExporter::generate('.env.example', '.env', true);
print_r($pairs);
// Output: ['APP_NAME' => 'MyApp', 'DB_HOST' => 'localhost', ...]

// Generate file and get the count of exported variables
$count = EnvExporter::generateAndReport('.env.example', '.env');
echo "Exported {$count} variables";

Option 2: Using the command line interface (CLI)

vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

Output:

Generated .env with 15 entries: .env

Real World Examples

Example 1: Simple deployment script

#!/bin/bash

# Your deployment script
cd /var/www/myapp
git pull origin main
composer install --no-dev

# Generate .env from system environment variables
vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

php artisan migrate --force

Example 2: Docker entrypoint script

In your docker-entrypoint.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Generate .env file from container environment variables
vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

# Start the application
php-fpm

In your Dockerfile:

FROM php:8.2-fpm

WORKDIR /var/www/html

COPY . .
RUN composer install --no-dev

COPY docker-entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-entrypoint.sh

ENTRYPOINT ["docker-entrypoint.sh"]

In your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  app:
    build: .
    environment:
      APP_NAME: "My Application"
      APP_ENV: production
      APP_DEBUG: "false"
      DB_HOST: database
      DB_DATABASE: myapp
      DB_USERNAME: root
      DB_PASSWORD: secret

Example 3: Docker with run.sh script

Many projects use a run.sh script to start the application inside a Docker container. This is a common pattern for applications that need to do some setup before starting.

In your run.sh:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Generate .env file from container environment variables
vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

# Run database migrations (optional)
php artisan migrate --force

# Clear and cache configurations (optional)
php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache

# Start the application
exec php-fpm

In your Dockerfile:

FROM php:8.2-fpm

WORKDIR /var/www/html

# Install dependencies
COPY composer.json composer.lock ./
RUN composer install --no-dev --no-scripts

# Copy application code
COPY . .

# Make run.sh executable
RUN chmod +x run.sh

# Use run.sh as the entrypoint
CMD ["./run.sh"]

In your docker-compose.yml:

services:
  app:
    build: .
    environment:
      APP_NAME: "My Application"
      APP_ENV: production
      APP_DEBUG: "false"
      APP_KEY: base64:your-app-key-here
      APP_URL: https://myapp.com
      
      DB_CONNECTION: mysql
      DB_HOST: database
      DB_PORT: 3306
      DB_DATABASE: myapp
      DB_USERNAME: root
      DB_PASSWORD: secret
      
      CACHE_DRIVER: redis
      REDIS_HOST: redis
      REDIS_PORT: 6379
    depends_on:
      - database
      - redis

  database:
    image: mysql:8.0
    environment:
      MYSQL_DATABASE: myapp
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: secret

  redis:
    image: redis:alpine

Example 4: Using with Dokploy

Dokploy is a deployment platform that allows you to set environment variables through its web interface. When you add environment variables in Dokploy, they become available as system environment variables in your container.

The problem: Dokploy (and similar platforms) may inject many system variables that you do not need. If you try to export all environment variables, you will get many unnecessary variables.

The solution: This package reads only the keys defined in your .env.example file. This means you only get the variables your application needs.

Step 1: In your Dokploy project, go to the "Environment" tab and add your variables:

APP_NAME=My Application
APP_ENV=production
APP_DEBUG=false
APP_URL=https://myapp.com

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=your-database-host
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=myapp
DB_USERNAME=myuser
DB_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword

REDIS_HOST=your-redis-host
REDIS_PORT=6379

Step 2: In your project, make sure you have a .env.example file with all the keys:

APP_NAME=
APP_ENV=
APP_DEBUG=
APP_URL=

DB_CONNECTION=
DB_HOST=
DB_PORT=
DB_DATABASE=
DB_USERNAME=
DB_PASSWORD=

REDIS_HOST=
REDIS_PORT=

Step 3: Create a run.sh script in your project root:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

# Generate .env file from Dokploy environment variables
vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

# Start your application
exec php-fpm

Step 4: In your Dockerfile, use the run.sh script:

FROM php:8.2-fpm

WORKDIR /var/www/html

COPY . .
RUN composer install --no-dev
RUN chmod +x run.sh

CMD ["./run.sh"]

The package will create a .env file with only the variables defined in .env.example, using the values from Dokploy environment settings.

Example 5: Kubernetes deployment

In your Kubernetes deployment manifest:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: myapp
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: app
          image: myapp:latest
          envFrom:
            - secretRef:
                name: myapp-secrets
            - configMapRef:
                name: myapp-config

In your container run.sh:

#!/bin/bash
set -e

vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env
exec php-fpm

Example 6: GitHub Actions deployment

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches: [main]

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: composer install --no-dev
      
      - name: Generate .env file
        run: vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env
        env:
          APP_NAME: ${{ vars.APP_NAME }}
          APP_ENV: production
          DB_HOST: ${{ secrets.DB_HOST }}
          DB_DATABASE: ${{ secrets.DB_DATABASE }}
          DB_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.DB_USERNAME }}
          DB_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.DB_PASSWORD }}
      
      - name: Deploy
        run: ./deploy.sh

Example 7: Laravel Forge / Envoyer

In your deployment script:

cd /home/forge/myapp.com

# Generate .env from server environment variables
vendor/bin/env-exporter .env.example .env

php artisan config:cache
php artisan route:cache
php artisan view:cache

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.

Author

Created and maintained by tofuma.