The DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
environment variable controls which settings file Django will load.
You therefore create separate configuration files for your respective environments (note that they can of course both import *
from a separate, "shared settings" file), and use DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
to control which one to use.
Here's how:
As noted in the Django documentation:
The value of DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE should be in Python path syntax, e.g. mysite.settings. Note that the settings module should be on the Python import search path.
So, let's assume you created myapp/production_settings.py
and myapp/test_settings.py
in your source repository.
In that case, you'd respectively set DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myapp.production_settings
to use the former and DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myapp.test_settings
to use the latter.
From here on out, the problem boils down to setting the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
environment variable.
Setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
using a script or a shell
You can then use a bootstrap script or a process manager to load the correct settings (by setting the environment), or just run it from your shell before starting Django: export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myapp.production_settings
.
Note that you can run this export at any time from a shell — it does not need to live in your .bashrc
or anything.
Setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE
using a Process Manager
If you're not fond of writing a bootstrap script that sets the environment (and there are very good reasons to feel that way!), I would recommend using a process manager:
Finally, note that you can take advantage of the PYTHONPATH
variable to store the settings in a completely different location (e.g. on a production server, storing them in /etc/
). This allows for separating configuration from application files. You may or may not want that, it depends on how your app is structured.
Best Answer
Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.5 suggests using version control for your settings files and storing the files in a separate directory:
The
base.py
file contains common settings (such as MEDIA_ROOT or ADMIN), whilelocal.py
andproduction.py
have site-specific settings:In the base file
settings/base.py
:In the local development settings file
settings/local.py
:In the file production settings file
settings/production.py
:Then when you run django, you add the
--settings
option:The authors of the book have also put up a sample project layout template on Github.