How to set local environment as default in command line (CLI) for Larvel 4 artisan

Typically when Laravel 4 artisan is run from the command line (cli) it uses the production configuration files. This can be changed by using a flag when running the command.

[ps]php artisan migrate --env=local[/ps]

However, adding --env-=local each time while running a script can slow down development. I would recommend adding your development environment hostname to the config file.

To do this Laravel 4 needs the hostname for your development environment. I recommended using a new file called check.php with the following contents:

[php]#!/usr/bin/env php
<?php
var_dump(gethostname());
[/php]

Run it from the command line:

[php]php check.php[/php]

This will output something like:

[ps]string(6) "ubuntu"[/ps]

In this case ubuntu is what is needed. We'll need to add it to the environment array in bootstrap/start.php

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

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

));
[/php]

Now artisan should run with the local environment as default when run on that machine.