[Laravel 4.2] The environment dotfile configuration

.env.local.php

<?php
//file: /.env.local.php
// return the configuration for the 'local' environment
return array(
    'db_host' => '127.0.0.1',
    'db_name' => 'DB_NAME', // specify database name 
    'db_user' => 'DB_USER', // specify database username 
    'db_pass' => 'DB_PASS', // specify database password
);

.gitignore

# file: /.gitignore

# Laravel #
/bootstrap/compiled.php
/vendor
composer.phar
composer.lock
.env.*.php
.env.php
/bootstrap/environment.php

database.php

<?php
//file: /app/config/local/database.php
// return the database configuration
return array(
    'connections' => array(

        'mysql' => array(
            'driver'    => 'mysql',
            'host'      => getenv('db_host'), // equivalent $_ENV['db_host']
            'database'  => getenv('db_name'),
            'username'  => getenv('db_user'),
            'password'  => getenv('db_pass'),
            'charset'   => 'utf8',
            'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
            'prefix'    => '',
        ),    
  
);

environment.php

<?php
//file: /bootstrap/environment.php
/**
 * The environment enumeration
 *      local
 *      staging
 *      production
 * 
 */

return 'local';

start.php

<?php
//file: /bootstrap/start.php

...

$env = $app->detectEnvironment(function ()
{
    return require __DIR__.'/environment.php'; // load the specified environment 
});