[Symfony CLI] Document about APP_ENV=test behavior

[Kocal]

Hi 👋

I'm miigrating some projects to the Symfony CLI and Docker and I made a mistake by creating two Docker containers for the main database and a test database (one database per container), but the test database was not used when running symfony php bin/phpunit (I have tests which need a database).

This is my .docker-compose.yaml:

version: '3.6'
services:
  database:
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: 'postgres:12-alpine'
    ports: [5432]
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: 'app'
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 'app'
      POSTGRES_DB: 'app'
      TZ: Etc/UTC
      PGTZ: Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: .manala/.docker/db-data
        target: /var/lib/postgresql/data:z
    labels:
        com.symfony.server.service-prefix: 'DATABASE_APP'

  database_test:
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: 'postgres:12-alpine'
    ports: [5432]
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: 'test'
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: 'test'
      POSTGRES_DB: 'test'
      TZ: Etc/UTC
      PGTZ: Etc/UTC
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: .manala/.docker/db-data-test
        target: /var/lib/postgresql/data:z
    labels:
        com.symfony.server.service-prefix: 'DATABASE_TEST'

my .env file:

# ...
DATABASE_URL=${DATABASE_APP_URL}

and my .env.test file:

# ...
DATABASE_URL=${DATABASE_TEST_URL}

I had to run PHPunit with APP_ENV=test to let Symfony CLI injects DATABASE_TEST_URL but it still didn't work because the database was test_test.

It seems by luck I discovered an undocumented behaviour, running the Symfony CLI with APP_ENV=test updates DATABASE_* environment variables for a test environment, so we just need one database container and no DATABASE_URL tricks.

symfony var:export --multiline outputs:

export DATABASE_DATABASE=app
export DATABASE_DRIVER=postgres
export DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
export DATABASE_NAME=app
export DATABASE_PASSWORD=app
export DATABASE_PORT=49160
export DATABASE_SERVER=postgres://127.0.0.1:49160
export DATABASE_URL=postgres://app:app@127.0.0.1:49160/app?sslmode=disable&charset=utf8
export DATABASE_USER=app
export DATABASE_USERNAME=app

APP_ENV=test symfony var:export --multiline outputs:

export DATABASE_DATABASE=app_test
export DATABASE_DRIVER=postgres
export DATABASE_HOST=127.0.0.1
export DATABASE_NAME=app_test
export DATABASE_PASSWORD=app
export DATABASE_PORT=49160
export DATABASE_SERVER=postgres://127.0.0.1:49160
export DATABASE_URL=postgres://app:app@127.0.0.1:49160/app_test?sslmode=disable&charset=utf8
export DATABASE_USER=app
export DATABASE_USERNAME=app
# ...

I think it can be intersting to document this behaviour, this way:

• people won't do the same mistake than me
• people won't be surprised by an undocumented behaviour

WDYT? Thanks!

[Kocal]

Funny, I updated the Symfony CLI from 4.21.6 to the latest version and there is a changelog entry about APP_ENV=test and databases:

This definitly needs to be in the documentation I think.

[javiereguiluz]

Hugo, thanks for this contribution and for your perfectly detailed explanation.

Please note that while merging we did a minor syntax fix. Unlike Markdown, the RST format that we use for Symfony Docs requires "double backticks" for code:

// Instead of this:
Using `APP_ENV=test symfony` will [...]

// We must use this:
Using ``APP_ENV=test symfony`` will [...]

But everything else was perfect, so thank you!

[Kocal]

Thanks! :)