Magento2 - Loading different modules per environment

Question

Is there currently a way to load different modules per environment, for instance to load Alan's CommerceBug extension only when I'm in my development environment?

Like in Magento 1 I can .gitignore the modules files in app/code but I can not ignore changes to app/etc/config.php easily via git.

It does not seem possible to load modules defined in your env.php as the Magento\Framework\App\DeploymentConfig\Reader load method only uses array_merge, instead of some sort of deep merge, to merge the file data and throws an Exception if similar keys are found.

/**
 * Loads the configuration file
 *
 * @param string $fileKey
 * @return array
 * @throws \Exception
 */
public function load($fileKey = null)
{
    $path = $this->dirList->getPath(DirectoryList::CONFIG);
    $fileDriver = $this->driverPool->getDriver(DriverPool::FILE);
    $result = [];
    if ($fileKey) {
        $filePath = $path . '/' . $this->configFilePool->getPath($fileKey);
        if ($fileDriver->isExists($filePath)) {
            $result = include $filePath;
        }
    } else {
        $configFiles = $this->configFilePool->getPaths();
        $allFilesData = [];
        $result = [];
        foreach (array_keys($configFiles) as $fileKey) {
            $configFile = $path . '/' . $this->configFilePool->getPath($fileKey);
            if ($fileDriver->isExists($configFile)) {
                $fileData = include $configFile;
            } else {
                continue;
            }
            $allFilesData[$configFile] = $fileData;
            if (!empty($fileData)) {
                $intersection = array_intersect_key($result, $fileData);
                if (!empty($intersection)) {
                    $displayMessage = $this->findFilesWithKeys(array_keys($intersection), $allFilesData);
                    throw new \Exception(
                        "Key collision! The following keys occur in multiple config files:"
                        . PHP_EOL . $displayMessage
                    );
                }
                $result = array_merge($result, $fileData);
            }
        }
    }
    return $result ?: [];
}

I found a very early github issue raised by @mzeis on https://github.com/magento/magento2/issues/7 which talks about multiple configurations per environments but this has been closed.

It would be possible to do some git hooks which call bin/magento module:enable and module:disable but this seems a very roundabout way to achieve truly environment dependant configuration.

Answer 1

I'll answer this based on both ways of installing modules in Magento. However, in both cases, you should gitignore the app/etc/config.php file and have it generated on each environment.

Installed using Composer

You should install the module in the require-dev section of composer as opposed to the require section (you do this using composer require --dev module/name). Then in your production environment when you run composer install you should include the --no-dev parameter.

Installed by deploying to app/code/Module/Name

You would handle this method the same as in M1. Just gitignore the directory.

Answer 2

If you're using composer to install a module, then the only non-hack way to disable it is using php bin/magento module:disable Vendor_Module somewhere in your deployment process.

If you're not using composer and the module resides under app/code/Vendor/Module then you should ignore it in your vcs. This does imply that you have to keep a copy of that module somewhere other than in your vcs.

The second option seems to be best. If you don't want that module present or active on your production environment then it can be seen as a development tool and should not be part of your project in vcs.

I would also advise to ignore this type of module in your global ignore file rather than on a per-project basis. This prevents slip-ups.