Difference between os.getenv and os.environ.get

See this related thread. Basically, os.environ is found on import, and os.getenv is a wrapper to os.environ.get, at least in CPython.

EDIT: To respond to a comment, in CPython, os.getenv is basically a shortcut to os.environ.get ; since os.environ is loaded at import of os, and only then, the same holds for os.getenv.

One difference (observed in Python 2.7 and 3.8) between getenv() and environ[]:

• os.getenv() does not raise an exception, but returns None
• os.environ.get() similarly returns None
• os.environ[] raises an exception if the environmental variable does not exist

In Python 2.7 with iPython:

>>> import os
>>> os.getenv??
Signature: os.getenv(key, default=None)
Source:
def getenv(key, default=None):
    """Get an environment variable, return None if it doesn't exist.
    The optional second argument can specify an alternate default."""
    return environ.get(key, default)
File:      ~/venv/lib/python2.7/os.py
Type:      function

So we can conclude os.getenv is just a simple wrapper around os.environ.get.

In addition to the answers above:

$ python3 -m timeit -s 'import os' 'os.environ.get("TERM_PROGRAM")'
200000 loops, best of 5: 1.65 usec per loop

$ python3 -m timeit -s 'import os' 'os.getenv("TERM_PROGRAM")'
200000 loops, best of 5: 1.83 usec per loop

EDIT: meaning, no difference