[Docs] Fix "Where does redwood load my environment variables?" code & link

[Philzen]

This is a work in progress.

I was researching the docs to find out how to set up a dedicated .env.test for a prisma test environment on our CI and found the link in that section linking to outdated code.

Only by looking at the code i discovered the --load-env-files option – i shall add a little section on this if it enables what i hope it does.

[Philzen]

@Tobbe i remember from a doc fix i contributed a long time ago that the team back then decided against using permalinks (which i still think would have been the better option, b/c in many cases the versioned docs simply fall apart over time, rather than staying at least consistent with the state they were at the time of writing).

I am fine with fixing all the past versioned docs as well, and would suggest to tether them to the tag – as demonstrated in this fix commit for the v8.4 docs. Not as rigorous as a permalink, but even more descriptive / easier to navigate, but most importantly: at least they stay functional over time.

Would you be OK with this?

[Tobbe]

i remember from a doc fix i contributed a long time ago that the team back then decided against using permalinks

Yes. We wanted to find a better (i.e. automated) way of handling this. But never got around to it. I agree linking to the tag like you did here is better now.

You don't have to go back and update older docs unless you want to. We sometimes do, but generally don't.

[Tobbe]

BTW, here's the PR that introduced the flag you found in the code: #9961

[Philzen]

We wanted to find a better (i.e. automated) way of handling this.

One idea i had floating around in my mind ever since was to check the docs for URLs that give a 404 as part of the CI to identify those that have vanished asap.

Doesn't solve the general question of how to keep the links stable in the first place, but at least would give us early notice when something breaks.

[Tobbe]

Doesn't solve the general question of how to keep the links stable in the first place, but at least would give us early notice when something breaks.

And, crucially, doesn't sound too difficult to implement!

[Philzen]

And, crucially, doesn't sound too difficult to implement!

I made a little RFC writeup so we can follow this up when there is time for it: #11886

[Philzen]

@Tobbe i've now added a doc section for --load-env-files, kindly review at your discretion. If you have any comments, i will gladly incorporate them and then copy the updates over to canary (and maybe a few other versions).

Needs #11885 to be merged in order to work as expected.