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+##############################
+Handling Multiple Environments
+##############################
+
+Developers often desire different system behavior depending on whether
+an application is running in a development or production environment.
+For example, verbose error output is something that would be useful
+while developing an application, but it may also pose a security issue
+when "live".
+
+The ENVIRONMENT Constant
+========================
+
+By default, CodeIgniter comes with the environment constant set to
+'development'. At the top of index.php, you will see::
+
+	 define('ENVIRONMENT', 'development');
+
+In addition to affecting some basic framework behavior (see the next
+section), you may use this constant in your own development to
+differentiate between which environment you are running in.
+
+Effects On Default Framework Behavior
+=====================================
+
+There are some places in the CodeIgniter system where the ENVIRONMENT
+constant is used. This section describes how default framework behavior
+is affected.
+
+Error Reporting
+---------------
+
+Setting the ENVIRONMENT constant to a value of 'development' will cause
+all PHP errors to be rendered to the browser when they occur.
+Conversely, setting the constant to 'production' will disable all error
+output. Disabling error reporting in production is a :doc:`good security
+practice <security>`.
+
+Configuration Files
+-------------------
+
+Optionally, you can have CodeIgniter load environment-specific
+configuration files. This may be useful for managing things like
+differing API keys across multiple environments. This is described in
+more detail in the environment section of the `Config
+Class <../libraries/config.html#environments>`_ documentation.