Reloading .env variables without restarting server (Laravel 5, shared hosting)

My Laravel 5 has run OK until the database was configured, then found this error:

SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] php_network_getaddresses: getaddrinfo failed: Name or service not known

Doing some research it seems that I configured MySQL access too late, so I should restart the server in order to get the correct environment variables. Well, I'm using Dreamhost's shared server and I just can't do that.

How should I fix this issue?

Thanks

If you have run php artisan config:cache on your server, then your Laravel app could cache outdated config settings that you've put in the .env file.

Run php artisan config:clear to fix that.

I know this is old, but for local dev, this is what got things back to a production .env file:

rm bootstrap/cache/config.php

then

php artisan config:cache
php artisan config:clear
php artisan cache:clear