How to setup the Shopware development template without docker? (to provide a Shopware platform pull request)

I understand, that in order to contribute to the Shopware platform / core, I have to setup Shopware 6 using the development template.

I followed the steps at https://github.com/shopware/platform#quickstart--installation

But only until

./psh.phar docker:start

I was thinking about installing via bin/console system:setup and bin/console system:install but it fails with

PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Symfony\Component\Dotenv\Exception\PathException:
 Unable to read the "/home/projects/shopware-dev-bd/bin/../.env" environment file. in 
/home/projects/shopware-dev-bd/vendor/symfony/dotenv/Dotenv.php:567

Is there an easy way to create the .env? Do I have to copy it manually?

Solution

It is recommended now to use the platform repository directly for setting up development installations.

Just clone directly from shopware/platform
composer install
bin/console system:setup to create the .env file
composer run setup
optionally bin/console framework:demodata if you need demo data