How to replace environment-specific config, not cascade - configuration

Question

I want to have a local development environment configuration for my database.php. I've created a new config director in my app and copied the database.php file into it. I'm using MongoDB and on production, I'm using a replica set with multiple servers, but locally, I'm just running a single server, so my connection info for production has more options:
Production:
...
'connections' => array(
'mongodb' => array(
'driver' => 'mongodb',
'host' => array('mongoDBA', 'mongoDBB'),
'port' => 27017,
'username' => 'myUserName',
'password' => 'myPassword',
'database' => 'theDatabase',
'options' => array('replicaSet' => 'myReplicaSet')
)
),
Local:
...
'connections' => array(
'mongodb' => array(
'driver' => 'mongodb',
'host' => 'localhost',
'port' => 27017,
'database' => 'theDatabase'
)
),
The problem is, when my local environment config loads, it merges the "connections" array. I want a way to completely replace the "mongodb" connection, so it's either one or the other, not both.
How can I accomplish this?

Answer 1

Create different set of configuration files:
app/config/local/database.php
app/config/production/database.php
And delete the file (or what you don't want of it):
app/config/database.php
And the you have to set your environment as
local
development
EDIT
This is how I do set my environment flawlessly, so I don't have to deal with hostnames and still don't get my local environment conflict with staging and production.
Create a .environment file in the root of your application and define your environment and add your sensitive information to it:
<?php
return array(
'APPLICATION_ENV' => 'development', /// this is where you will set your environment
'DB_HOST' => 'localhost',
'DB_DATABASE_NAME' => 'laraveldatabase',
'DB_DATABASE_USER' => 'laraveluser',
'DB_DATABASE_PASSWORD' => '!Bassw0rT',
);
Add it to your .gitignore file, so you don't risk having your passwords sent to Github or any other of your servers.
Right before $app->detectEnvironment, in the file bootstrap/start.php, load your .environment file to PHP environment:
foreach(require __DIR__.'/../.environment' as $key => $value)
{
putenv(sprintf('%s=%s', $key, $value));
}
And then you just have to use it:
$env = $app->detectEnvironment(function () {
return getenv('APPLICATION_ENV'); // your environment name is in that file!
});
And it will work everywhere, so you don't need to have separate dirs for development and production anymore:
<?php
return array(
'connections' => array(
'postgresql' => array(
'driver' => 'pgsql',
'host' => getenv('DB_HOST'),
'database' => getenv('DB_DATABASE_NAME'),
'username' => getenv('DB_DATABASE_USER'),
'password' => getenv('DB_DATABASE_PASSWORD'),
'charset' => 'utf8',
'prefix' => '',
'schema' => 'public',
),
),
);
Note that I don't set a fallback:
return getenv('APPLICATION_ENV') ?: 'local';
Because, if I don't set the file, I want it to fail on every server I deploy my app to.