get the filepath and filehandle to the .env file for the environment

def __get_env_handle(self, root_dir):
        """ get the filepath and filehandle to the .env file for the environment """
        env_path = os.path.join(root_dir, '.env')
        gui_path = os.path.join(root_dir, '.gui')
        fh = open(env_path, "w+")
        # .env will source utils.sh if it hasn't already
        fh.write(source_template % (gui_path, gui_path))
        fh.write(source_template % (self.shell_util_path,
                                    self.shell_util_path))
        return (env_path, fh)