python-dotenv: Variable not found ("None" returned) on a Mac

Hi, we are using dotenv for a project and are getting strange behavior.

While the environment variable is working just fine on a Windows machine, it is not able to read at all on a Mac. It returns “None” even though the variable is clearly there. There seem to be no other issues.

In X.py file:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv()
import os
HOME_PATH = os.getenv("SQUABBLE_HOME_PATH")

In .env file:

SQUABBLE_HOME_PATH = '/path/to/squabble_runner/'

While running:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "XXXX/X.py", line 27, in controversy_score
    input_file_path = HOME_PATH + 'lib/squabble_input.txt'
TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'NoneType' and 'str'

This is on Sierra, Python 3.6.2.

As mentioned above, the same code runs just fine on a PC. Any help would be appreciated!

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 6 years ago
Reactions: 3
Comments: 18 (4 by maintainers)

Most upvoted comments

I have the same problem as others here. If I use load_dotenv() then it doesn’t work. If I use load_dotenv(find_dotenv()) then it works fine though.

garyking on Apr 7, 2018

It happened to me as well on Docker/Ubuntu14.04. I had to explicitly load with dotenv_path:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv(dotenv_path='.env', verbose=True)

joarleymoraes on May 2, 2018

@theskumar Can you please reopen the issue? I tested it again with python 3.6.5, as well as with an absolute filename or with the load function, and the issue persists. As opposed to @TDiazT, my file name is definitely .env 😄. No file permission issues either.

Let me know what you need from me in order to reproduce the issue. As I mentioned, this is particularly with one mac and one PC on the same team.

@devrsw, are you still getting the same error?

Thanks!

shirki on Apr 23, 2018

This is also something we’re running into as well.

devrsw on Mar 29, 2018

Same as well.

Working on High Sierra, Python 3.5

TDiazT on Apr 1, 2018

Saw this issue and wanted to post what worked for me since none of the above fixes were working for my problem.

I had trouble getting python-dotenv to work because I had jupyterlab installed in my conda (miniforge) base environment and had installed python-dotenv in a separate environment. python-dotenv wasn’t recognizing the .env file correctly from jupyterlab and after a lot of trouble shooting all I had to do was install python-dotenv in my base conda env as well. Then load_dotenv() correctly recognized my .env file in the same folder as my notebook.

Just wanted to post in case someone else had the same problem.

KaeganCasey on Nov 1, 2021

i’m on a mac, high sierra and I had the same issue until I changed it to:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
from dotenv import find_dotenv
load_dotenv(find_dotenv())

ccennis on May 18, 2018

@theskumar Neither load_dotenv(find_dotenv()) nor providing an absolute path worked.

python-dotenv: 0.8.2 Python: 3.6.2 Mac: Sierra

shirki on Apr 9, 2018