How to set Laravel 4 environments

The environment is based on url matches.

You'll find that configuration in /bootstrap/start.php

[ps]
\$env = \$app->detectEnvironment(array(

'local' => array('your-machine-name'),

));
[/ps]

Now say you are developing locally and use the prefix/postfix local. E.g: my-new-site.local or local.my-new-site

[ps]
\$env = \$app->detectEnvironment(array(

'local' => array('local.*','*.local'),

));
[/ps]

That sets the environment, now to use it you'll need to create a local folder in /app/config/

[ps]
mkdir app/config/local
[/ps]

And so you want to have a different database configuration for local. Just copy the database config file in to the local directory and modify it.

[ps]
cp app/config/database.php app/config/local/database.php
[/ps]