Add support for returning the file directory of loaded env file

[senese]

I miss the python-dotenv.find_dotenv() feature of returning the directory which the env file is placed.

Is there anything similar in environs? Are you accepting PR?

Thanks!

[sloria]

This functionality doesn't exist within environs. I'd be open to a PR that just delegates to python-dotenv. We should also probably refactor read_env to delegate to find_dotenv as well. I made an issue for that #363

[senese]

I believe is not necessary to delegate to python-dotenv as it's already loading the environment with the path that read_env is searching.

IMHO there is no right or wrong on how to implement this, just pros and cons. I notice that creating an instance of Env() is the main way to use environs (even the docs exemplifies that), so I quite not understand why read_env is a static method. I tried to remove @staticmethod decorator and all the tests have passed. Changing to an instance method would allow read_env to store the env path in a instance variable so that it is always available for the user (instead of returning when calling the function).

So I strongly advice to change read_env to a instance method in a major release (along the refactoring) as it breaks compatibility with other codes that are using the staticmethod version.

For the PR I try to maintain the code style and not to break compatibility, just adding an optional parameter for the user to receive a boolean or string return type.

[sloria]

Thanks for looking into this @senese . I like your proposal to change read_env to an instance method and store the path as an attribute.

I think we can should just go ahead and make that change now, even though it is breaking. I plan to update Python version support anyway, so it's about time for a major release.

Can you please update your PR accordingly?

[senese]

Hi @sloria! Glad you like my idea.

I would suggest that we could add this feature with a minor release and work on the instance method in a next PR. I've seen on pypistats that environs had millions of downloads last month (kudos!!) and it will be nice to add a feature to the library before a breaking change. We don't know the environment and restrictions of the users and other libraries using environs.

For this issue I fix the return type as the Union operator | wasn`t a thing for Python 3.8 and 3.9 versions.

[sloria]

Works for me. Thanks!

[sloria]

closed by #364