How do you set Django environment variables with venv on linux?

Question

I've tried using Python's os, manually typing the variables into the terminal, and using a .env file to set my environment variables but always get

raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.")
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

Python

# env.py
import os
os.environ['SECRET_KEY'] = '<my secret key>'

Inside .env

export SECRET_KEY=<my secret key>

settings.py

SECRET_KEY = os.getenv("SECRET_KEY")

Running my python script will not make the environment variables persist.

---

• Ubuntu 20.04.02
• Django 3.1
• Using VSCode

I have double checked the correct venv activated.

What am I doing wrong! Thanks

Answer 1

Django itself does not read .env file. The best way, to enable it is to use django-environ package

Modify you settings.py

import environ
env = environ.Env(
    # set casting, default value
    DEBUG=(bool, False)
)

And .env file

SECRET_KEY=your-secret-key