Environment File Existence Analyzer

Analyzer ID	Category	Severity	Time To Fix
env-file-exists	✅ Reliability	Critical	5 minutes

What This Checks

• Verifies that .env file exists in the application root
• Checks if .env is readable by the application
• Detects empty .env files that contain no configuration
• Identifies broken symlinks pointing to non-existent target files
• Validates that .env contains actual configuration data
• Provides context-aware recommendations based on .env.example presence
• Reports file permissions and symlink metadata for debugging

Why It Matters

• Application cannot start: Laravel loads critical configuration from .env - without it, your application will crash immediately with "RuntimeException: No application encryption key has been specified"
• Configuration failures: Environment-specific settings (database, cache, queue, mail) won't load, causing cascading failures across your app
• Security vulnerabilities: Missing APP_KEY means sessions and encrypted data are insecure or completely broken
• Deployment disasters: Fresh deployments to staging/production fail immediately if .env is missing, causing downtime
• Developer onboarding: New team members cannot run the project without .env, wasting hours troubleshooting
• CI/CD pipeline failures: Automated tests and deployments fail silently when .env is missing in test environments
• Silent data loss: Missing database configuration can cause the application to connect to wrong databases or fail to save data
• Broken symlinks in production: Common deployment pattern using symlinked .env files can break, causing production outages

How to Fix

Quick Fix (2 minutes)

If .env.example exists:

# Unix/Linux/macOS
cp .env.example .env

# Windows (Command Prompt)
copy .env.example .env

# Windows (PowerShell)
Copy-Item .env.example .env

Then generate a secure application key:

php artisan key:generate

Proper Fix (5 minutes)

1. Create .env from .env.example (if it exists):

cp .env.example .env

2. Configure critical environment variables:

# Open .env in your editor
nano .env  # or vim, code, etc.

Update these required variables:

# Application
APP_NAME="Your App Name"
APP_ENV=local              # local, staging, production
APP_DEBUG=true             # true for local, false for production
APP_URL=http://localhost   # Your application URL

# Generate this with: php artisan key:generate
APP_KEY=base64:GENERATED_32_CHARACTER_KEY_HERE

# Database
DB_CONNECTION=mysql        # mysql, pgsql, sqlite, sqlsrv
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=your_database
DB_USERNAME=your_username
DB_PASSWORD=your_password

# Cache (optional but recommended)
CACHE_DRIVER=file          # file, redis, memcached, database
SESSION_DRIVER=file        # file, cookie, database, redis
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync      # sync, database, redis, sqs

3. Generate application key (if not already set):

php artisan key:generate

This will automatically update APP_KEY in your .env file.

4. Verify configuration loads:

# Test that .env is readable
php artisan tinker
>>> config('app.name')
=> "Your App Name"

# Or run a quick test
php artisan config:show app

5. Set proper file permissions:

# Unix/Linux/macOS
chmod 644 .env

# Ensure it's readable by web server
sudo chown www-data:www-data .env  # Adjust user as needed

Creating .env from Scratch (if .env.example is missing)

If .env.example doesn't exist, create .env manually:

# Create new .env file
touch .env

# Add minimum required configuration
cat > .env << 'EOF'
APP_NAME=Laravel
APP_ENV=local
APP_KEY=
APP_DEBUG=true
APP_URL=http://localhost

LOG_CHANNEL=stack
LOG_DEPRECATIONS_CHANNEL=null
LOG_LEVEL=debug

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=laravel
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=

BROADCAST_DRIVER=log
CACHE_DRIVER=file
FILESYSTEM_DISK=local
QUEUE_CONNECTION=sync
SESSION_DRIVER=file
SESSION_LIFETIME=120

MEMCACHED_HOST=127.0.0.1

REDIS_HOST=127.0.0.1
REDIS_PASSWORD=null
REDIS_PORT=6379

MAIL_MAILER=smtp
MAIL_HOST=mailpit
MAIL_PORT=1025
MAIL_USERNAME=null
MAIL_PASSWORD=null
MAIL_ENCRYPTION=null
MAIL_FROM_ADDRESS="hello@example.com"
MAIL_FROM_NAME="${APP_NAME}"
EOF

# Generate secure APP_KEY
php artisan key:generate

References

• Laravel Configuration Documentation
• Laravel Environment Configuration
• Laravel Deployment Guide
• PHP Dotenv Library
• The Twelve-Factor App - Config

Related Analyzers

• Environment Variables Complete Analyzer - Ensures all required environment variables from .env.example are defined in .env
• Environment Example Documentation Analyzer - Ensures all environment variables used in .env are documented in .env.example
• Directory Write Permissions Analyzer - Ensures storage directories are writable