What is the difference between .env.local and .env.development.local?

Question

I used a create-react-app.

And created environment variable files. .env.local, .env.development.local

I found that .env.development ispreferred over .env.local

And env.development.local seems to have prioty over .env.development.

If so, .env.development.local is used to override .env.development what is the purpose of .env.local?

score 130 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 15 '21 at 11:03

130

Here's the priority of the files for the development build and the production build:

Dev.: (npm start): .env.development.local, .env.local, .env.development, .env

Prod.: (npm run build): .env.production.local, .env.local, .env.production, .env

If you ever want to use something in your local environment without being specific to the development build or the production build, you can add some variables to your .env.local file.

Source : https://create-react-app.dev/docs/adding-custom-environment-variables/#what-other-env-files-can-be-used

edited Oct 15 '21 at 11:03

jb-

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answered Apr 15 '19 at 13:30

Clafouti

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How does that read? Is the top priority file on the right or on the left? – Paulin Trognon Sep 17 '20 at 09:09
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@PaulinTrognon Top priority is on the left. – Clafouti Sep 23 '20 at 07:32
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Could you please kindly provide the source of the answer? – Downhillski Jul 26 '21 at 14:49
How do you exclude .env.local from the Prod chain? – duduwe Oct 10 '22 at 04:35
.env.production.local More specific tends to be higher priority. – OsamaBinLogin Apr 05 '23 at 23:38
for some reasons .env.local does not work when there is a .env.development, but .env.development.local does work – Jonathan Apr 21 '23 at 07:29

score 63 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 15 '19 at 13:28

63

In .env.local you can set up environment variables that are specific to your local machine and it doesn't have to be on development mode to work, so variables there will work for both development and production.

answered Apr 15 '19 at 13:28

r g

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how do i load .env.local with require('dotenv')? – chovy Jan 05 '20 at 18:39
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@chovy tbh i prefer `dotenv-flow`, then just `require('dotenv-flow').config(); const url = process.env.DB;` – r g Jan 09 '20 at 16:42
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@chovy I don't think there's a concept of override in `dotenv` as specified by [this issue](https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv/issues/199). But if you just want to load `.env.local` from `dotenv` then you can pass it in config as mentioned [here](https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv#path). – shriek Feb 14 '21 at 19:05

What is the difference between .env.local and .env.development.local?

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