I’ve seen a few posts about managing multiple WordPress configuration files in dev / prod environments. (Such as this one.) Many of them seem a bit over-engineered, so why make it more complicated than it has to be? Here is probably the fastest way to setup different configuration files for development and production environments in WordPress:

• Copy wp-config.php twice, as wp-config.dev.php and wp-config.prod.php
• Create a new wp-config.php file, input the snippet below:

Snippet:

<?php
/* Config loading based on environment variable */
if(getenv('WP_ENV') === 'dev')
    include 'wp-config.dev.php';
else
    include 'wp-config.prod.php';

• In your VirtualHost configuration, set the appropriate environmental variable.

Development

SetEnv WP_ENV   dev

Production

SetEnv WP_ENV   prod

• You’re done!