env file keeps deleting after deploying with Envoyer

Question

I'm using Laravel 5.4, Envoyer and Forge. Every time I deploy master branch on Envoyer, my .env file gets deleted. It has no content.

What should I do? Is it maybe my configuration faulty?

Answer 1

Let's breakdown the way Envoyer works:

1. Clones the git repository to a new release folder - found under /releases.
2. Runs composer install on this new cloned directory (to bring your vendor folder up to date).
3. Overwrites the symlink for /path/to/project/current from /path/to/project/releases/[first release folder] to /path/to/project/releases/[second release folder.
4. Clears out old release folders.

When a new version is deployed, it does a fresh clone of the git repository. Unless you have changed your .gitignore, your .env file is NOT tracked in git so is never in the new folder.

By using the environment capability built-in to Envoyer, this places an .env file here /path/to/project/.env and symlinks from /path/to/project/.env to /path/to/project/current/.env.