daily-email: add 2023-09-27

Separating environments with feature flags

src/content/daily-email/2023-09-27.md

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+---
+title: >
+  Separating environments with feature flags
+pubDate: 2023-09-27
+permalink: >
+  archive/2023/09/27/separating-environments-with-feature-flags
+tags:
+  - software-development
+  - feature-flags
+---
+
+You have two or more environments and versions of your application, but you do trunk-based development, so you only have a single branch that you use on all environments.
+
+But if all environments have the same code, how can we have differences between them?
+
+What if we want a feature enabled on one environment and not the other?
+
+## Feature flags
+
+Feature flags are an approach I've previously written about. You have two branches of logic within your code, and the flow changes based on whether a flag is enabled.
+
+If a flag is enabled, execute the first block of code. Otherwise, execute the second.
+
+Now, you enable and disable the required feature flags for each environment.
+
+**The code is the same for all environments, but the enabled features and functionality are different.**
+
+Then, once the feature has been deployed and released in production, the feature flag can be removed.