How to make SQLite work in Laravel

Whenever I run php artisan migrate, the following error is shown in the console:

[PDOException]
SQLSTATE[HY000] [14] unable to open database file

The database.sqlite file is located at database/. I'm running Windows 10, Laravel 5.2. Here is .env file config:

.env:

DB_CONNECTION=sqlite
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=database
DB_USERNAME=homestead
DB_PASSWORD=secret

I have looked everywhere, but could not find what causes this error and how to resolve it.

Update

I managed to make migrations run successfully by replacing DB_DATABASE=database with DB_DATABASE=database/database.sqlite in .env file. However, new error occurs whenever I try to retrieve items from the database:

public function index()
{
    // cause of the error
    $cards = Card::all();

    return view('cards.index', compact('cards'));
}

The above action throws following error:

InvalidArgumentException in SQLiteConnector.php line 34:
Database (database/database.sqlite) does not exist.

The strange thing is, that the command Card::all() works flawlessly in php artisan tinker mode. What kind of magic is that?

Anyway, I've also found out, that the line:

'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', database_path('database.sqlite')),

in database.php file needs to be replaced with just database_path('database.sqlite') and everything starts to work normally.

---

It seems, that the root of the problem is env('DB_DATABASE') call. I went to SQLiteConnector.php file and dumped the output of both env('DB_DATABASE') and database_path('database.sqlite'). Here are their outputs respectively:

dd(env('DB_DATABASE'))               // => 'database/database.sqlite'
dd(database_path('database.sqlite')) // => 'D:\www\project\database\database.sqlite'

As you see, their output differs, and the second one is what is expected. Is this a Laravel bug? Or did I misunderstood something?

Short Solution

Though not answering the question, the way to fix "Database not found" issue is to replace the following line in database.php:

'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', database_path('database.sqlite')),

with

'database' => database_path('database.sqlite'),