Best practice - Distinguish between environments (PHP) - php

Question

I need to make some slight configuration changes in my local dev env.
Thus, I would like to know what is the "best practice" in distinguishing between environments.
I would like to have only one config file which will behave differently depending on which environment it is executed.

Answer 1

Common and good practice is to use different .env files on different environments.
Basically, a .env file is an easy way to load custom configuration
variables that your application needs without having to modify
.htaccess files or Apache/Nginx virtual hosts. This means you won't
have to edit any files outside the project, and all the environment
variables are always set no matter how you run your project - Apache,
Nginx, CLI, and even PHP 5.4's built-in webserver. It's WAY easier
than all the other ways you know of to set environment variables, and
you're going to love it.
You can use some already created packages to add this to your project. Check this one: https://github.com/vlucas/phpdotenv
Example (just for a demo, not production ready code!):
Note! You will need to add .env to .gitignore file to keep it not synced between environments.
Development .env file:
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_USER=root
DB_PASSWORD=
Production .env file:
DB_HOST=192.168.10.1
DB_USER=dbUser
DB_PASSWORD=123456
Possible config.php file:
<?php
// add composer autoload somewhere here...
$dotenv = new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__);
$dotenv->load();
return [
'db' => [
'host' => getenv('DB_HOST'),
'user' => getenv('DB_USER'),
'pass' => getenv('DB_PASSWORD'),
]
]