Laravel `.env`, system-level, and server-level environment variables

I was curious about this as well. Here’s your answer:

System Level Env Variables:

These are set on the actual operating system themselves.

For example, in Windows, system level variables can be configured in:

1. Control Panel
2. System Properties
3. Click Environment Variables
4. You will see all the system level variables Windows contains

Not sure where env variables are stored in Linux unfortunately.

Server Level Env Variables:

These are set on the host server, for example in Apache, server level env variables can be configured via the file /etc/apache2/envvars

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-set-an-environment-variable-in-linux/