If using a .env file with Docker, the Flask CLI still tells you to install python-dotenv

If you have a .env file and are using Docker you don’t need to install python-dotenv.

But every time you run any flask CLI command, Flask will output * Tip: There are .env or .flaskenv files present. Do "pip install python-dotenv" to use them. to stdout before any other output.

Perhaps this tip could be removed all together? IMO if you’re using env files you likely already know to use python-dotenv and if you’re using Docker you have access to your environment variables through other means.

Expected Behavior

No tip output to be present.

Actual Behavior

It produces this:

Environment

• Python version: 3.9.1
• Flask version: 1.1.2
• Werkzeug version: 1.0.1

[nickjj]

Sure it can be automated in development, but it means setting it in every project and in production chances are you’re not committing your .env which means you need to explicitly add FLASK_SKIP_DOTENV=true to whatever production environment you’re deploying to.

That could be adding it through the Heroku CLI or editing whatever env variables / env file / secrets mechanism you use with Docker Compose, systemd, Kubernetes, ECS, Swarm, DigitalOcean Apps or the half dozen other application runtimes that all load env variables in various ways without needing python-dotenv.

Edit:

Ah, you’re right, the cli in general checks for the file. I’m not going to remove the message right now

The only reason I’m pushing back on this is because it’s an inconvenience to every person running Flask in production since the tip comes up every time you run any flask command.

If it worked as you originally described by only being output with flask run then it would be no big deal since no one would ever see it unless you were in development using flask run. But since we determined it’s a bug and not working like that, maybe as a compromise you can make the warning only show up in the case you originally intended it for? That solves the problem too.

[davidism]

Ah, you’re right, the cli in general checks for the file. I’m not going to remove the message right now, so your best bet is setting the extra environment variable. You could automate this if you use something like cookiecutter to create new projects from templates.