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+---
+aliases: dot-env, env-file
+topic: dotenv
+display_name: .env
+short_description: .env is a file, used to store configuration values as key-value pairs, similar to the ini file format.
+related: ini, configuration-file, environment-variables
+---
+**.env** (**dotenv**) is a file, used to store configuration values as key-value pairs, similar to the ini file format. Since this file usually contains confidential information like credentials, it's commonly prevented from being tracked by version control.