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Laravel With Existing MariaDB

By Arch Brooks on May 26, 2026 in Programming

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Yes. Use the existing MariaDB by only changing Laravel’s .env.

cd my_project
nano .env

Set these to your existing database:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=existing_database_name
DB_USERNAME=existing_user
DB_PASSWORD=existing_password

Then test the connection:

php artisan migrate:status

If the existing database is empty or ready for Laravel tables:

php artisan migrate

If it already has important tables, do not run migrations until you inspect what Laravel will create:

php artisan migrate --pretend

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