How to appropriately handle prod/dev environment variables

[powderham]

I have a nextjs project set up using prisma in the backend.

I largely followed the tutorial but am having difficulties setting the DATABASE_URL when trying to create a production build.

I currently have a .env file at /prisma/.env which gets read, but I can't seem to find a way to use a different env file e.g. .env.prod or .env.local when running next build.

Has anyone found a solution for this such that I can run next build or next build --prod and not have to worry about changing the DATABASE_URL manually.

Thanks.

[ryands17]

Hi @powderham 👋
One workaround would be to use sometihing like dotenv-cli and pass a custom .env file while running the command.

So it would look something like this:

dotenv -e env.prod -- next build --prod

Do let me know if it works.
There is also an open issue here

[powderham]

This indeed works, thanks.