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docs/main/administration-guide/configure/environment-variables.mdx

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+---
+title: "Environment variables"
+---
+<PlanAvailability slug="all-commercial" />
+
+You can use environment variables to manage the configuration. Environment variables override settings in `config.json`. If a change to a setting in `config.json` requires a restart for it to take effect, then changes to the corresponding environment variable also require a server restart.
+
+The name of the environment variable for any setting can be derived from the name of that setting in `config.json`. For example, to derive the name of the Site URL setting:
+
+1.  Find the setting in `config.json`. In this case, *ServiceSettings.SiteURL*.
+2.  Add `MM_` to the beginning and convert all characters to uppercase and replace the `.` with `_`. For example, *MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL*.
+3.  The setting becomes `export MM_SERVICESETTINGS_SITEURL="http://example.com"`.
+
+<Note>
+
+- If Mattermost is run from an initialization file, environment variables can be set via `Environment=<>`, or `EnvironmentFile=<path/to/file>`. In the second case, the file specified contains the list of environment variables to set.
+- From Mattermost v7.5, environment configuration parsing supports JSON for `MM_PLUGINSETTINGS_PLUGINS` and `MM_PLUGINSETTINGS_PLUGINSTATES`. This is especially helpful for Helm configuration files, provided all plugins are configured at the same time. For example, `MM_PLUGINSETTINGS_PLUGINSTATES="&#123;\"com.mattermost.calls\":&#123;\"Enable\":true&#125;,\"com.mattermost.nps\":&#123;\"Enable\":true&#125;&#125;"`.
+- When settings are configured through an environment variable, system admins can't modify them in the System Console. If a setting is configured through an environment variable, and any other changes are made in the System Console, the value stored of the environment variable will be written back to the `config.json` as that setting's value.
+- For any setting that's not set in `config.json` or in environment variables, the Mattermost server uses the setting's default value as documented in the sections below on this page.
+
+</Note>
+
+<Warning>
+
+- Environment variables for Mattermost settings that are set within the active shell will take effect when migrating configuration. For more information, see the [configuration in a database](/administration-guide/configure/configuration-in-your-database) documentation.
+- Database connection strings for the database read and search replicas need to be formatted using [URL encoding](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp). Incorrectly formatted strings may cause some characters to terminate the string early, resulting in issues when the connection string is parsed.
+
+</Warning>
+
+## Override Mattermost license file
+
+You can use an environment variable to override any license in the database or file configuration without replacing those licenses. When starting the server, specify the license key as `MM_LICENSE` with the contents of a license file.
+
+<Note>
+
+If `MM_LICENSE` is set to a non-empty string, but the license specified is not valid, the Mattermost server will be started without a license.
+
+In a High Availability deployment, using an environment variable to override a server license only affects the individual app server and doesn't propagate to other servers in the cluster.
+
+</Note>
+
+## Load custom configuration defaults
+
+This custom configuration applies only if the values are not already present in the current server configuration.
+
+1.  Create a JSON file that contains the custom configuration defaults. For example, `custom.json`.
+2.  When starting the server, point the custom defaults environment variable to the defaults file: `MM_CUSTOM_DEFAULTS_PATH=custom.json`.