Question about variables hardcoded in config/settings.py

[nikkwong]

Hi; new to Python and trying to get adjusted to the conventions. I'm curious as to why in config/settings.py the values for SQLAlchemy are hardcoded:

pg_user = os.getenv("POSTGRES_USER", "tetricus_web_app")
pg_pass = os.getenv("POSTGRES_PASSWORD", "password")
pg_host = os.getenv("POSTGRES_HOST", "postgres")
pg_port = os.getenv("POSTGRES_PORT", "5432")

Is this TODO? Wouldn't the correct convention to be to use os.getenv("POSTGRES_PASSWORD") for example? Thank you!

[nickjj]

Hi,

The hard coded values are defaults only if you don't override them by setting the env variable.

For example chances are you'll never need to override pg_port = os.getenv("POSTGRES_PORT", "5432") but you can set your own POSTGRES_PORT=1234 environment variable if you wanted to set a custom port (you wouldn't need to change this settings file).