How to specify a different .env file for phpunit in Laravel 5?

Question

I have a .env file containing my database connection details, as is normal for Laravel 5. I want to override these for testing, which I can do in phpunit.

Answer 1

In your app.php change the Dotenv section

$envFile = 'testing' === env('APP_ENV') ? '.env.testing' : null;
try {
    (new Dotenv\Dotenv(__DIR__ . '/../', $envFile))->load();
} catch (Dotenv\Exception\InvalidPathException $e) {
    //
}

This will work hence PHPUnit changes the env before loading your app..so if running tests you will have the env already at testing