# Python : Env Packages
## python-dotenv
By default: Looks for `.env` file in same directory as script and doesn’t overwrite existing env vars.
#### File Format
- keys can be unquoted or single-quoted
- values can be unquoted, single-quoted, or double-quoted
- whitespace around keys, values, and = is ignored
- values can be followed by a comment
- quoted strings support multiline
- double-quoted strings support escape sequences
- supports variable interpolation using `${}`
```
MEN=12
TITLE="${MEN} Angry Men"
```
- values and = not required
```
FOO ignored by load_dotenv(), set to None by dotenv_values()
FOO = set to empty string by both
```
#### API
```python
from dotenv import dotenv_values, load_dotenv
load_dotenv(
dotenv_path = None
stream = None
verbose = False
override = False
interpolate = True
encoding = "utf-8"
)
values = dotenv_values( ... ) # same options as load_dotenv() except "override"`
```