django-admin and manage.py

django-admin is Django’s command-line utility for administrative tasks.This document outlines all it can do.

In addition, manage.py is automatically created in each Django project. Itdoes the same thing as django-admin but also sets theDJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable so that it points to yourproject’s settings.py file.

The django-admin script should be on your system path if you installedDjango via its setup.py utility. If it’s not on your path, you can find itin site-packages/django/bin within your Python installation. Considersymlinking it from some place on your path, such as /usr/local/bin.

For Windows users, who do not have symlinking functionality available, you cancopy django-admin.exe to a location on your existing path or edit thePATH settings (under Settings - Control Panel - System - Advanced -Environment…) to point to its installed location.

Generally, when working on a single Django project, it’s easier to usemanage.py than django-admin. If you need to switch between multipleDjango settings files, use django-admin withDJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or the —settings command lineoption.

The command-line examples throughout this document use django-admin tobe consistent, but any example can use manage.py or python -m djangojust as well.

Usage

  1. $ django-admin <command> [options]
  2. $ manage.py <command> [options]
  3. $ python -m django <command> [options]
  1. ...\> django-admin <command> [options]
  2. ...\> manage.py <command> [options]
  3. ...\> py -m django <command> [options]

command should be one of the commands listed in this document.options, which is optional, should be zero or more of the options availablefor the given command.

Getting runtime help

  • django-admin help
  • Run django-admin help to display usage information and a list of thecommands provided by each application.

Run django-admin help —commands to display a list of all availablecommands.

Run django-admin help <command> to display a description of the givencommand and a list of its available options.

App names

Many commands take a list of “app names.” An “app name” is the basename ofthe package containing your models. For example, if your INSTALLED_APPScontains the string 'mysite.blog', the app name is blog.

Determining the version

  • django-admin version
  • Run django-admin version to display the current Django version.

The output follows the schema described in PEP 440:

  1. 1.4.dev17026
  2. 1.4a1
  3. 1.4

Displaying debug output

Use —verbosity to specify the amount of notification and debuginformation that django-admin prints to the console.

Available commands

check

  • django-admin check [app_label [app_label …]]
  • Uses the system check framework to inspect the entireDjango project for common problems.

By default, all apps will be checked. You can check a subset of apps byproviding a list of app labels as arguments:

  1. django-admin check auth admin myapp

If you do not specify any app, all apps will be checked.

  • —tag TAGS, -t TAGS
  • The system check framework performs many different types of checks that arecategorized with tags. You can use thesetags to restrict the checks performed to just those in a particular category.For example, to perform only models and compatibility checks, run:
  1. django-admin check --tag models --tag compatibility
  • —list-tags

  • Lists all available tags.

  • —deploy

  • Activates some additional checks that are only relevant in a deployment setting.

You can use this option in your local development environment, but since yourlocal development settings module may not have many of your production settings,you will probably want to point the check command at a different settingsmodule, either by setting the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable,or by passing the —settings option:

  1. django-admin check --deploy --settings=production_settings

Or you could run it directly on a production or staging deployment to verifythat the correct settings are in use (omitting —settings). You could evenmake it part of your integration test suite.

  • —fail-level {CRITICAL,ERROR,WARNING,INFO,DEBUG}
  • Specifies the message level that will cause the command to exit with a non-zerostatus. Default is ERROR.

compilemessages

  • django-admin compilemessages

  • Compiles .po files created by makemessages to .mo files foruse with the built-in gettext support. See Internationalization and localization.

  • —locale LOCALE, -l LOCALE

  • Specifies the locale(s) to process. If not provided, all locales are processed.

  • —exclude EXCLUDE, -x EXCLUDE

  • Specifies the locale(s) to exclude from processing. If not provided, no localesare excluded.

  • —use-fuzzy, -f

  • Includes fuzzy translations into compiled files.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin compilemessages --locale=pt_BR
  2. django-admin compilemessages --locale=pt_BR --locale=fr -f
  3. django-admin compilemessages -l pt_BR
  4. django-admin compilemessages -l pt_BR -l fr --use-fuzzy
  5. django-admin compilemessages --exclude=pt_BR
  6. django-admin compilemessages --exclude=pt_BR --exclude=fr
  7. django-admin compilemessages -x pt_BR
  8. django-admin compilemessages -x pt_BR -x fr
  • —ignore PATTERN, -i PATTERN
  • New in Django 3.0:

Ignores directories matching the given glob-style pattern. Usemultiple times to ignore more.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin compilemessages --ignore=cache --ignore=outdated/*/locale

createcachetable

  • django-admin createcachetable

  • Creates the cache tables for use with the database cache backend using theinformation from your settings file. See Django’s cache framework for moreinformation.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database in which the cache table(s) will be created. Defaults todefault.

  • —dry-run

  • Prints the SQL that would be run without actually running it, so you cancustomize it or use the migrations framework.

dbshell

  • django-admin dbshell

  • Runs the command-line client for the database engine specified in yourENGINE setting, with the connection parametersspecified in your USER, PASSWORD, etc., settings.

  • For PostgreSQL, this runs the psql command-line client.

  • For MySQL, this runs the mysql command-line client.
  • For SQLite, this runs the sqlite3 command-line client.

  • For Oracle, this runs the sqlplus command-line client.This command assumes the programs are on your PATH so that a call tothe program name (psql, mysql, sqlite3, sqlplus) will find theprogram in the right place. There’s no way to specify the location of theprogram manually.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database onto which to open a shell. Defaults to default.

diffsettings

  • django-admin diffsettings
  • Displays differences between the current settings file and Django’s defaultsettings (or another settings file specified by —default).

Settings that don’t appear in the defaults are followed by "###". Forexample, the default settings don’t define ROOT_URLCONF, soROOT_URLCONF is followed by "###" in the output ofdiffsettings.

  • —all

  • Displays all settings, even if they have Django’s default value. Such settingsare prefixed by "###".

  • —default MODULE

  • The settings module to compare the current settings against. Leave empty tocompare against Django’s default settings.

  • —output {hash,unified}

  • Specifies the output format. Available values are hash and unified.hash is the default mode that displays the output that’s described above.unified displays the output similar to diff -u. Default settings areprefixed with a minus sign, followed by the changed setting prefixed with aplus sign.

dumpdata

  • django-admin dumpdata [app_label[.ModelName] [app_label[.ModelName] …]]
  • Outputs to standard output all data in the database associated with the namedapplication(s).

If no application name is provided, all installed applications will be dumped.

The output of dumpdata can be used as input for loaddata.

Note that dumpdata uses the default manager on the model for selecting therecords to dump. If you’re using a custom manager asthe default manager and it filters some of the available records, not all of theobjects will be dumped.

  • —all, -a

  • Uses Django’s base manager, dumping records which might otherwise be filteredor modified by a custom manager.

  • —format FORMAT

  • Specifies the serialization format of the output. Defaults to JSON. Supportedformats are listed in Serialization formats.

  • —indent INDENT

  • Specifies the number of indentation spaces to use in the output. Defaults toNone which displays all data on single line.

  • —exclude EXCLUDE, -e EXCLUDE

  • Prevents specific applications or models (specified in the form ofapp_label.ModelName) from being dumped. If you specify a model name, theoutput will be restricted to that model, rather than the entire application.You can also mix application names and model names.

If you want to exclude multiple applications, pass —exclude more thanonce:

  1. django-admin dumpdata --exclude=auth --exclude=contenttypes
  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database from which data will be dumped. Defaults to default.

  • —natural-foreign

  • Uses the natural_key() model method to serialize any foreign key andmany-to-many relationship to objects of the type that defines the method. Ifyou’re dumping contrib.auth Permission objects orcontrib.contenttypes ContentType objects, you should probably use thisflag. See the natural keysdocumentation for more details on this and the next option.

  • —natural-primary

  • Omits the primary key in the serialized data of this object since it can becalculated during deserialization.

  • —pks PRIMARY_KEYS

  • Outputs only the objects specified by a comma separated list of primary keys.This is only available when dumping one model. By default, all the records ofthe model are output.

  • —output OUTPUT, -o OUTPUT

  • Specifies a file to write the serialized data to. By default, the data goes tostandard output.

When this option is set and —verbosity is greater than 0 (the default), aprogress bar is shown in the terminal.

flush

  • django-admin flush
  • Removes all data from the database and re-executes any post-synchronizationhandlers. The table of which migrations have been applied is not cleared.

If you would rather start from an empty database and re-run all migrations, youshould drop and recreate the database and then run migrate instead.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database to flush. Defaults to default.

inspectdb

  • django-admin inspectdb [table [table …]]
  • Introspects the database tables in the database pointed-to by theNAME setting and outputs a Django model module (a models.pyfile) to standard output.

You may choose what tables or views to inspect by passing their names asarguments. If no arguments are provided, models are created for views only ifthe —include-views option is used. Models for partition tables arecreated on PostgreSQL if the —include-partitions option is used.

Use this if you have a legacy database with which you’d like to use Django.The script will inspect the database and create a model for each table withinit.

As you might expect, the created models will have an attribute for every fieldin the table. Note that inspectdb has a few special cases in its field-nameoutput:

  • If inspectdb cannot map a column’s type to a model field type, it’lluse TextField and will insert the Python comment'This field type is a guess.' next to the field in the generatedmodel. The recognized fields may depend on apps listed inINSTALLED_APPS. For example, django.contrib.postgres addsrecognition for several PostgreSQL-specific field types.
  • If the database column name is a Python reserved word (such as'pass', 'class' or 'for'), inspectdb will append'_field' to the attribute name. For example, if a table has a column'for', the generated model will have a field 'for_field', withthe db_column attribute set to 'for'. inspectdb will insertthe Python comment'Field renamed because it was a Python reserved word.' next to thefield.This feature is meant as a shortcut, not as definitive model generation. Afteryou run it, you’ll want to look over the generated models yourself to makecustomizations. In particular, you’ll need to rearrange models’ order, so thatmodels that refer to other models are ordered properly.

Django doesn’t create database defaults when adefault is specified on a model field.Similarly, database defaults aren’t translated to model field defaults ordetected in any fashion by inspectdb.

By default, inspectdb creates unmanaged models. That is, managed = Falsein the model’s Meta class tells Django not to manage each table’s creation,modification, and deletion. If you do want to allow Django to manage thetable’s lifecycle, you’ll need to change themanaged option to True (or removeit because True is its default value).

Database-specific notes

Oracle
PostgreSQL
  • Models are created for foreign tables.
  • Models are created for materialized views if—include-views is used.
  • Models are created for partition tables if—include-partitions is used.Changed in Django 2.2:Support for foreign tables and materialized views was added.
  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database to introspect. Defaults to default.

  • —include-partitions

  • New in Django 2.2:

If this option is provided, models are also created for partitions.

Only support for PostgreSQL is implemented.

  • —include-views
  • If this option is provided, models are also created for database views.

loaddata

  • django-admin loaddata fixture [fixture …]

  • Searches for and loads the contents of the named fixture into the database.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database into which the data will be loaded. Defaults todefault.

  • —ignorenonexistent, -i

  • Ignores fields and models that may have been removed since the fixture wasoriginally generated.

  • —app APP_LABEL

  • Specifies a single app to look for fixtures in rather than looking in all apps.

  • —format FORMAT

  • Specifies the serialization format (e.g.,json or xml) for fixtures read from stdin.

  • —exclude EXCLUDE, -e EXCLUDE

  • Excludes loading the fixtures from the given applications and/or models (in theform of app_label or app_label.ModelName). Use the option multipletimes to exclude more than one app or model.

What’s a “fixture”?

A fixture is a collection of files that contain the serialized contents ofthe database. Each fixture has a unique name, and the files that comprise thefixture can be distributed over multiple directories, in multiple applications.

Django will search in three locations for fixtures:

  • In the fixtures directory of every installed application
  • In any directory named in the FIXTURE_DIRS setting
  • In the literal path named by the fixtureDjango will load any and all fixtures it finds in these locations that matchthe provided fixture names.

If the named fixture has a file extension, only fixtures of that typewill be loaded. For example:

  1. django-admin loaddata mydata.json

would only load JSON fixtures called mydata. The fixture extensionmust correspond to the registered name of aserializer (e.g., json or xml).

If you omit the extensions, Django will search all available fixture typesfor a matching fixture. For example:

  1. django-admin loaddata mydata

would look for any fixture of any fixture type called mydata. If a fixturedirectory contained mydata.json, that fixture would be loadedas a JSON fixture.

The fixtures that are named can include directory components. Thesedirectories will be included in the search path. For example:

  1. django-admin loaddata foo/bar/mydata.json

would search <app_label>/fixtures/foo/bar/mydata.json for each installedapplication, <dirname>/foo/bar/mydata.json for each directory inFIXTURE_DIRS, and the literal path foo/bar/mydata.json.

When fixture files are processed, the data is saved to the database as is.Model defined save() methods are not called, andany pre_save orpost_save signals will be called withraw=True since the instance only contains attributes that are local to themodel. You may, for example, want to disable handlers that accessrelated fields that aren’t present during fixture loading and would otherwiseraise an exception:

  1. from django.db.models.signals import post_save
  2. from .models import MyModel
  3.  
  4. def my_handler(**kwargs):
  5.     # disable the handler during fixture loading
  6.     if kwargs['raw']:
  7.         return
  8.     ...
  9.  
  10. post_save.connect(my_handler, sender=MyModel)

You could also write a decorator to encapsulate this logic:

  1. from functools import wraps
  2.  
  3. def disable_for_loaddata(signal_handler):
  4.     """
  5.     Decorator that turns off signal handlers when loading fixture data.
  6.     """
  7.     @wraps(signal_handler)
  8.     def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
  9.         if kwargs['raw']:
  10.             return
  11.         signal_handler(*args, **kwargs)
  12.     return wrapper
  13.  
  14. @disable_for_loaddata
  15. def my_handler(**kwargs):
  16.     ...

Just be aware that this logic will disable the signals whenever fixtures aredeserialized, not just during loaddata.

Note that the order in which fixture files are processed is undefined. However,all fixture data is installed as a single transaction, so data inone fixture can reference data in another fixture. If the database backendsupports row-level constraints, these constraints will be checked at theend of the transaction.

The dumpdata command can be used to generate input for loaddata.

Compressed fixtures

Fixtures may be compressed in zip, gz, or bz2 format. For example:

  1. django-admin loaddata mydata.json

would look for any of mydata.json, mydata.json.zip,mydata.json.gz, or mydata.json.bz2. The first file contained within azip-compressed archive is used.

Note that if two fixtures with the same name but differentfixture type are discovered (for example, if mydata.json andmydata.xml.gz were found in the same fixture directory), fixtureinstallation will be aborted, and any data installed in the call toloaddata will be removed from the database.

MySQL with MyISAM and fixtures

The MyISAM storage engine of MySQL doesn’t support transactions orconstraints, so if you use MyISAM, you won’t get validation of fixturedata, or a rollback if multiple transaction files are found.

Database-specific fixtures

If you’re in a multi-database setup, you might have fixture data thatyou want to load onto one database, but not onto another. In thissituation, you can add a database identifier into the names of your fixtures.

For example, if your DATABASES setting has a ‘master’ databasedefined, name the fixture mydata.master.json ormydata.master.json.gz and the fixture will only be loaded when youspecify you want to load data into the master database.

Loading fixtures from stdin

You can use a dash as the fixture name to load input from sys.stdin. Forexample:

  1. django-admin loaddata --format=json -

When reading from stdin, the —format optionis required to specify the serialization formatof the input (e.g., json or xml).

Loading from stdin is useful with standard input and output redirections.For example:

  1. django-admin dumpdata --format=json --database=test app_label.ModelName | django-admin loaddata --format=json --database=prod -

makemessages

  • django-admin makemessages
  • Runs over the entire source tree of the current directory and pulls out allstrings marked for translation. It creates (or updates) a message file in theconf/locale (in the Django tree) or locale (for project and application)directory. After making changes to the messages files you need to compile themwith compilemessages for use with the builtin gettext support. Seethe i18n documentation for details.

This command doesn’t require configured settings. However, when settings aren’tconfigured, the command can’t ignore the MEDIA_ROOT andSTATIC_ROOT directories or include LOCALE_PATHS.

  • —all, -a

  • Updates the message files for all available languages.

  • —extension EXTENSIONS, -e EXTENSIONS

  • Specifies a list of file extensions to examine (default: html, txt,py or js if —domain is js).

Example usage:

  1. django-admin makemessages --locale=de --extension xhtml

Separate multiple extensions with commas or use -e or —extensionmultiple times:

  1. django-admin makemessages --locale=de --extension=html,txt --extension xml
  • —locale LOCALE, -l LOCALE

  • Specifies the locale(s) to process.

  • —exclude EXCLUDE, -x EXCLUDE

  • Specifies the locale(s) to exclude from processing. If not provided, no localesare excluded.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin makemessages --locale=pt_BR
  2. django-admin makemessages --locale=pt_BR --locale=fr
  3. django-admin makemessages -l pt_BR
  4. django-admin makemessages -l pt_BR -l fr
  5. django-admin makemessages --exclude=pt_BR
  6. django-admin makemessages --exclude=pt_BR --exclude=fr
  7. django-admin makemessages -x pt_BR
  8. django-admin makemessages -x pt_BR -x fr
  • —domain DOMAIN, -d DOMAIN

  • Specifies the domain of the messages files. Supported options are:

  • django for all .py, .html and *.txt files (default)

  • djangojs for *.js files
  • —symlinks, -s
  • Follows symlinks to directories when looking for new translation strings.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin makemessages --locale=de --symlinks
  • —ignore PATTERN, -i PATTERN
  • Ignores files or directories matching the given glob-style pattern. Usemultiple times to ignore more.

These patterns are used by default: 'CVS', '.', '~', '*.pyc'.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin makemessages --locale=en_US --ignore=apps/* --ignore=secret/*.html
  • —no-default-ignore

  • Disables the default values of —ignore.

  • —no-wrap

  • Disables breaking long message lines into several lines in language files.

  • —no-location

  • Suppresses writing ‘#: filename:line’ comment lines in language files.Using this option makes it harder for technically skilled translators tounderstand each message’s context.

  • —add-location [{full,file,never}]

  • Controls #: filename:line comment lines in language files. If the optionis:

  • full (the default if not given): the lines include both file name andline number.

  • file: the line number is omitted.

  • never: the lines are suppressed (same as —no-location).Requires gettext 0.19 or newer.

  • —keep-pot

  • Prevents deleting the temporary .pot files generated before creating the.po file. This is useful for debugging errors which may prevent the finallanguage files from being created.

See also

See Customizing the makemessages command for instructions on how to customizethe keywords that makemessages passes to xgettext.

makemigrations

  • django-admin makemigrations [app_label [app_label …]]
  • Creates new migrations based on the changes detected to your models.Migrations, their relationship with apps and more are covered in depth inthe migrations documentation.

Providing one or more app names as arguments will limit the migrations createdto the app(s) specified and any dependencies needed (the table at the other endof a ForeignKey, for example).

To add migrations to an app that doesn’t have a migrations directory, runmakemigrations with the app’s app_label.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts. If a suppressed prompt cannot be resolvedautomatically, the command will exit with error code 3.

  • —empty

  • Outputs an empty migration for the specified apps, for manual editing. This isfor advanced users and should not be used unless you are familiar with themigration format, migration operations, and the dependencies between yourmigrations.

  • —dry-run

  • Shows what migrations would be made without actually writing any migrationsfiles to disk. Using this option along with —verbosity 3 will also showthe complete migrations files that would be written.

  • —merge

  • Enables fixing of migration conflicts.

  • —name NAME, -n NAME

  • Allows naming the generated migration(s) instead of using a generated name. Thename must be a valid Python identifier.

  • —no-header

  • New in Django 2.2:

Generate migration files without Django version and timestamp header.

  • —check
  • Makes makemigrations exit with a non-zero status when model changes withoutmigrations are detected.

migrate

  • django-admin migrate [app_label] [migration_name]
  • Synchronizes the database state with the current set of models and migrations.Migrations, their relationship with apps and more are covered in depth inthe migrations documentation.

The behavior of this command changes depending on the arguments provided:

  • No arguments: All apps have all of their migrations run.
  • <app_label>: The specified app has its migrations run, up to the mostrecent migration. This may involve running other apps’ migrations too, dueto dependencies.
  • <app_label> <migrationname>: Brings the database schema to a state wherethe named migration is applied, but no later migrations in the same app areapplied. This may involve unapplying migrations if you have previouslymigrated past the named migration. Use the name zero to unapply allmigrations for an app.
  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database to migrate. Defaults to default.

  • —fake

  • Marks the migrations up to the target one (following the rules above) asapplied, but without actually running the SQL to change your database schema.

This is intended for advanced users to manipulate thecurrent migration state directly if they’re manually applying changes;be warned that using —fake runs the risk of putting the migration statetable into a state where manual recovery will be needed to make migrationsrun correctly.

  • —fake-initial

  • Allows Django to skip an app’s initial migration if all database tables withthe names of all models created by allCreateModel operations in thatmigration already exist. This option is intended for use when first runningmigrations against a database that preexisted the use of migrations. Thisoption does not, however, check for matching database schema beyond matchingtable names and so is only safe to use if you are confident that your existingschema matches what is recorded in your initial migration.

  • —plan

  • New in Django 2.2:

Shows the migration operations that will be performed for the given migratecommand.

  • —run-syncdb

  • Allows creating tables for apps without migrations. While this isn’trecommended, the migrations framework is sometimes too slow on large projectswith hundreds of models.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts. An example prompt is asking about removing stalecontent types.

runserver

  • django-admin runserver [addrport]
  • Starts a lightweight development Web server on the local machine. By default,the server runs on port 8000 on the IP address 127.0.0.1. You can pass in anIP address and port number explicitly.

If you run this script as a user with normal privileges (recommended), youmight not have access to start a port on a low port number. Low port numbersare reserved for the superuser (root).

This server uses the WSGI application object specified by theWSGI_APPLICATION setting.

DO NOT USE THIS SERVER IN A PRODUCTION SETTING. It has not gone throughsecurity audits or performance tests. (And that’s how it’s gonna stay. We’re inthe business of making Web frameworks, not Web servers, so improving thisserver to be able to handle a production environment is outside the scope ofDjango.)

The development server automatically reloads Python code for each request, asneeded. You don’t need to restart the server for code changes to take effect.However, some actions like adding files don’t trigger a restart, so you’llhave to restart the server in these cases.

If you’re using Linux or MacOS and install both pywatchman and theWatchman service, kernel signals will be used to autoreload the server(rather than polling file modification timestamps each second). This offersbetter performance on large projects, reduced response time after code changes,more robust change detection, and a reduction in power usage. Django supportspywatchman 1.2.0 and higher.

Large directories with many files may cause performance issues

When using Watchman with a project that includes large non-Pythondirectories like node_modules, it’s advisable to ignore this directoryfor optimal performance. See the watchman documentation for informationon how to do this.

Watchman timeout

The default timeout of Watchman client is 5 seconds. You can change itby setting the DJANGO_WATCHMAN_TIMEOUT environment variable.

Changed in Django 2.2:Watchman support replaced support for pyinotify.

When you start the server, and each time you change Python code while theserver is running, the system check framework will check your entire Djangoproject for some common errors (see the check command). If anyerrors are found, they will be printed to standard output.

You can run as many concurrent servers as you want, as long as they’re onseparate ports by executing django-admin runserver more than once.

Note that the default IP address, 127.0.0.1, is not accessible from othermachines on your network. To make your development server viewable to othermachines on the network, use its own IP address (e.g. 192.168.2.1) or0.0.0.0 or :: (with IPv6 enabled).

You can provide an IPv6 address surrounded by brackets(e.g. [200a::1]:8000). This will automatically enable IPv6 support.

A hostname containing ASCII-only characters can also be used.

If the staticfiles contrib app is enabled(default in new projects) the runserver command will be overriddenwith its own runserver command.

Logging of each request and response of the server is sent to thedjango.server logger.

  • —noreload

  • Disables the auto-reloader. This means any Python code changes you make whilethe server is running will not take effect if the particular Python moduleshave already been loaded into memory.

  • —nothreading

  • Disables use of threading in the development server. The server ismultithreaded by default.

  • —ipv6, -6

  • Uses IPv6 for the development server. This changes the default IP address from127.0.0.1 to ::1.

Examples of using different ports and addresses

Port 8000 on IP address 127.0.0.1:

  1. django-admin runserver

Port 8000 on IP address 1.2.3.4:

  1. django-admin runserver 1.2.3.4:8000

Port 7000 on IP address 127.0.0.1:

  1. django-admin runserver 7000

Port 7000 on IP address 1.2.3.4:

  1. django-admin runserver 1.2.3.4:7000

Port 8000 on IPv6 address ::1:

  1. django-admin runserver -6

Port 7000 on IPv6 address ::1:

  1. django-admin runserver -6 7000

Port 7000 on IPv6 address 2001:0db8:1234:5678::9:

  1. django-admin runserver [2001:0db8:1234:5678::9]:7000

Port 8000 on IPv4 address of host localhost:

  1. django-admin runserver localhost:8000

Port 8000 on IPv6 address of host localhost:

  1. django-admin runserver -6 localhost:8000

Serving static files with the development server

By default, the development server doesn’t serve any static files for your site(such as CSS files, images, things under MEDIA_URL and so forth). Ifyou want to configure Django to serve static media, readManaging static files (e.g. images, JavaScript, CSS).

sendtestemail

  • django-admin sendtestemail [email [email …]]
  • Sends a test email (to confirm email sending through Django is working) to therecipient(s) specified. For example:
  1. django-admin sendtestemail foo@example.com bar@example.com

There are a couple of options, and you may use any combination of themtogether:

shell

  • django-admin shell

  • Starts the Python interactive interpreter.

  • —interface {ipython,bpython,python}, -i {ipython,bpython,python}

  • Specifies the shell to use. By default, Django will use IPython or bpython ifeither is installed. If both are installed, specify which one you want like so:

IPython:

  1. django-admin shell -i ipython

bpython:

  1. django-admin shell -i bpython

If you have a “rich” shell installed but want to force use of the “plain”Python interpreter, use python as the interface name, like so:

  1. django-admin shell -i python
  • —nostartup

  • Disables reading the startup script for the “plain” Python interpreter. Bydefault, the script pointed to by the PYTHONSTARTUP environmentvariable or the ~/.pythonrc.py script is read.

  • —command COMMAND, -c COMMAND

  • Lets you pass a command as a string to execute it as Django, like so:
  1. django-admin shell --command="import django; print(django.__version__)"

You can also pass code in on standard input to execute it. For example:

  1. $ django-admin shell <<EOF
  2. > import django
  3. > print(django.__version__)
  4. > EOF

On Windows, the REPL is output due to implementation limits ofselect.select() on that platform.

showmigrations

  • django-admin showmigrations [app_label [app_label …]]

  • Shows all migrations in a project. You can choose from one of two formats:

  • —list, -l

  • Lists all of the apps Django knows about, the migrations available for eachapp, and whether or not each migration is applied (marked by an [X] next tothe migration name). For a —verbosity of 2 and above, the applieddatetimes are also shown.

Apps without migrations are also listed, but have (no migrations) printedunder them.

This is the default output format.

Changed in Django 3.0:Output of the applied datetimes at verbosity 2 and above was added.

  • —plan, -p
  • Shows the migration plan Django will follow to apply migrations. Like—list, applied migrations are marked by an [X]. For a —verbosityof 2 and above, all dependencies of a migration will also be shown.

app_labels arguments limit the output, however, dependencies of providedapps may also be included.

  • —database DATABASE
  • Specifies the database to examine. Defaults to default.

sqlflush

  • django-admin sqlflush

  • Prints the SQL statements that would be executed for the flushcommand.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database for which to print the SQL. Defaults to default.

sqlmigrate

  • django-admin sqlmigrate app_label migration_name
  • Prints the SQL for the named migration. This requires an active databaseconnection, which it will use to resolve constraint names; this means you mustgenerate the SQL against a copy of the database you wish to later apply it on.

Note that sqlmigrate doesn’t colorize its output.

  • —backwards

  • Generates the SQL for unapplying the migration. By default, the SQL created isfor running the migration in the forwards direction.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database for which to generate the SQL. Defaults to default.

sqlsequencereset

  • django-admin sqlsequencereset app_label [app_label …]
  • Prints the SQL statements for resetting sequences for the given app name(s).

Sequences are indexes used by some database engines to track the next availablenumber for automatically incremented fields.

Use this command to generate SQL which will fix cases where a sequence is outof sync with its automatically incremented field data.

  • —database DATABASE
  • Specifies the database for which to print the SQL. Defaults to default.

squashmigrations

  • django-admin squashmigrations app_label [start_migration_name] migration_name
  • Squashes the migrations for app_label up to and including migration_namedown into fewer migrations, if possible. The resulting squashed migrationscan live alongside the unsquashed ones safely. For more information,please read Squashing migrations.

When start_migration_name is given, Django will only include migrationsstarting from and including this migration. This helps to mitigate thesquashing limitation of RunPython anddjango.db.migrations.operations.RunSQL migration operations.

  • —no-optimize

  • Disables the optimizer when generating a squashed migration. By default, Djangowill try to optimize the operations in your migrations to reduce the size ofthe resulting file. Use this option if this process is failing or creatingincorrect migrations, though please also file a Django bug report about thebehavior, as optimization is meant to be safe.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts.

  • —squashed-name SQUASHED_NAME

  • Sets the name of the squashed migration. When omitted, the name is based on thefirst and last migration, with squashed in between.

  • —no-header

  • New in Django 2.2:

Generate squashed migration file without Django version and timestamp header.

startapp

  • django-admin startapp name [directory]
  • Creates a Django app directory structure for the given app name in the currentdirectory or the given destination.

By default, the new directory contains amodels.py file and other app template files. If only the app name is given,the app directory will be created in the current working directory.

If the optional destination is provided, Django will use that existingdirectory rather than creating a new one. You can use ‘.’ to denote the currentworking directory.

For example:

  1. django-admin startapp myapp /Users/jezdez/Code/myapp
  • —template TEMPLATE
  • Provides the path to a directory with a custom app template file, or a path toan uncompressed archive (.tar) or a compressed archive (.tar.gz,.tar.bz2, .tar.xz, .tar.lzma, .tgz, .tbz2, .txz,.tlz, .zip) containing the app template files.

For example, this would look for an app template in the given directory whencreating the myapp app:

  1. django-admin startapp --template=/Users/jezdez/Code/my_app_template myapp

Django will also accept URLs (http, https, ftp) to compressedarchives with the app template files, downloading and extracting them on thefly.

For example, taking advantage of GitHub’s feature to expose repositories aszip files, you can use a URL like:

  1. django-admin startapp --template=https://github.com/githubuser/django-app-template/archive/master.zip myapp

Changed in Django 3.0:Support for XZ archives (.tar.xz, .txz) and LZMA archives(.tar.lzma, .tlz) was added.

  • —extension EXTENSIONS, -e EXTENSIONS

  • Specifies which file extensions in the app template should be rendered with thetemplate engine. Defaults to py.

  • —name FILES, -n FILES

  • Specifies which files in the app template (in addition to those matching—extension) should be rendered with the template engine. Defaults to anempty list.

The template context used for all matchingfiles is:

  • Any option passed to the startapp command (among the command’s supportedoptions)
  • app_name – the app name as passed to the command
  • app_directory – the full path of the newly created app
  • camel_case_app_name – the app name in camel case format
  • docs_version – the version of the documentation: 'dev' or '1.x'
  • django_version – the version of Django, e.g. '2.0.3'

Warning

When the app template files are rendered with the Django templateengine (by default all *.py files), Django will also replace allstray template variables contained. For example, if one of the Python filescontains a docstring explaining a particular feature relatedto template rendering, it might result in an incorrect example.

To work around this problem, you can use the templatetagtemplate tag to “escape” the various parts of the template syntax.

In addition, to allow Python template files that contain Django templatelanguage syntax while also preventing packaging systems from trying tobyte-compile invalid *.py files, template files ending with .py-tplwill be renamed to .py.

startproject

  • django-admin startproject name [directory]
  • Creates a Django project directory structure for the given project name inthe current directory or the given destination.

By default, the new directory containsmanage.py and a project package (containing a settings.py and otherfiles).

If only the project name is given, both the project directory and projectpackage will be named <projectname> and the project directorywill be created in the current working directory.

If the optional destination is provided, Django will use that existingdirectory as the project directory, and create manage.py and the projectpackage within it. Use ‘.’ to denote the current working directory.

For example:

  1. django-admin startproject myproject /Users/jezdez/Code/myproject_repo
  • —template TEMPLATE

  • Specifies a directory, file path, or URL of a custom project template. See thestartapp —template documentation for examples and usage.

  • —extension EXTENSIONS, -e EXTENSIONS

  • Specifies which file extensions in the project template should be rendered withthe template engine. Defaults to py.

  • —name FILES, -n FILES

  • Specifies which files in the project template (in addition to those matching—extension) should be rendered with the template engine. Defaults to anempty list.

The template context used is:

  • Any option passed to the startproject command (among the command’ssupported options)
  • project_name – the project name as passed to the command
  • project_directory – the full path of the newly created project
  • secret_key – a random key for the SECRET_KEY setting
  • docs_version – the version of the documentation: 'dev' or '1.x'
  • django_version – the version of Django, e.g. '2.0.3'Please also see the rendering warning as mentionedfor startapp.

test

  • django-admin test [test_label [test_label …]]

  • Runs tests for all installed apps. See Testing in Django for moreinformation.

  • —failfast

  • Stops running tests and reports the failure immediately after a test fails.

  • —testrunner TESTRUNNER

  • Controls the test runner class that is used to execute tests. This valueoverrides the value provided by the TEST_RUNNER setting.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts. A typical prompt is a warning about deleting anexisting test database.

Test runner options

The test command receives options on behalf of the specified—testrunner. These are the options of the default test runner:DiscoverRunner.

  • —keepdb

  • Preserves the test database between test runs. This has the advantage ofskipping both the create and destroy actions which can greatly decrease thetime to run tests, especially those in a large test suite. If the test databasedoes not exist, it will be created on the first run and then preserved for eachsubsequent run. Any unapplied migrations will also be applied to the testdatabase before running the test suite.

  • —reverse, -r

  • Sorts test cases in the opposite execution order. This may help in debuggingthe side effects of tests that aren’t properly isolated. Grouping by testclass is preserved when using this option.

  • —debug-mode

  • Sets the DEBUG setting to True prior to running tests. This mayhelp troubleshoot test failures.

  • —debug-sql, -d

  • Enables SQL logging for failing tests. If—verbosity is 2, then queries in passing tests are also output.

  • —parallel [N]

  • Runs tests in separate parallel processes. Since modern processors havemultiple cores, this allows running tests significantly faster.

By default —parallel runs one process per core according tomultiprocessing.cpu_count(). You can adjust the number of processeseither by providing it as the option’s value, e.g. —parallel=4, or bysetting the DJANGO_TEST_PROCESSES environment variable.

Django distributes test cases — unittest.TestCase subclasses — tosubprocesses. If there are fewer test cases than configured processes, Djangowill reduce the number of processes accordingly.

Each process gets its own database. You must ensure that different test casesdon’t access the same resources. For instance, test cases that touch thefilesystem should create a temporary directory for their own use.

This option requires the third-party tblib package to display tracebackscorrectly:

  1. $ python -m pip install tblib

This feature isn’t available on Windows. It doesn’t work with the Oracledatabase backend either.

If you want to use pdb while debugging tests, you must disable parallelexecution (—parallel=1). You’ll see something like bdb.BdbQuit if youdon’t.

Warning

When test parallelization is enabled and a test fails, Django may beunable to display the exception traceback. This can make debuggingdifficult. If you encounter this problem, run the affected test withoutparallelization to see the traceback of the failure.

This is a known limitation. It arises from the need to serialize objectsin order to exchange them between processes. SeeWhat can be pickled and unpickled? for details.

Runs test methods and classes matching test name patterns, in the same way asunittest's -k option. Can be specified multiple times.

Python 3.7 and later

This feature is only available for Python 3.7 and later.

  • —pdb
  • New in Django 3.0:

Spawns a pdb debugger at each test error or failure. If you have itinstalled, ipdb is used instead.

testserver

  • django-admin testserver [fixture [fixture …]]
  • Runs a Django development server (as in runserver) using data fromthe given fixture(s).

For example, this command:

  1. django-admin testserver mydata.json

…would perform the following steps:

  • Create a test database, as described in The test database.
  • Populate the test database with fixture data from the given fixtures.(For more on fixtures, see the documentation for loaddata above.)

  • Runs the Django development server (as in runserver), pointed atthis newly created test database instead of your production database.This is useful in a number of ways:

  • When you’re writing unit tests of how your viewsact with certain fixture data, you can use testserver to interact withthe views in a Web browser, manually.

  • Let’s say you’re developing your Django application and have a “pristine”copy of a database that you’d like to interact with. You can dump yourdatabase to a fixture (using the dumpdata command, explainedabove), then use testserver to run your Web application with that data.With this arrangement, you have the flexibility of messing up your datain any way, knowing that whatever data changes you’re making are onlybeing made to a test database.Note that this server does not automatically detect changes to your Pythonsource code (as runserver does). It does, however, detect changes totemplates.

  • —addrport ADDRPORT

  • Specifies a different port, or IP address and port, from the default of127.0.0.1:8000. This value follows exactly the same format and servesexactly the same function as the argument to the runserver command.

Examples:

To run the test server on port 7000 with fixture1 and fixture2:

  1. django-admin testserver --addrport 7000 fixture1 fixture2
  2. django-admin testserver fixture1 fixture2 --addrport 7000

(The above statements are equivalent. We include both of them to demonstratethat it doesn’t matter whether the options come before or after the fixturearguments.)

To run on 1.2.3.4:7000 with a test fixture:

  1. django-admin testserver --addrport 1.2.3.4:7000 test
  • —noinput, —no-input
  • Suppresses all user prompts. A typical prompt is a warning about deleting anexisting test database.

Commands provided by applications

Some commands are only available when the django.contrib application thatimplements them has beenenabled. This section describes them grouped bytheir application.

django.contrib.auth

changepassword

  • django-admin changepassword [<username>]
  • This command is only available if Django’s authentication system (django.contrib.auth) is installed.

Allows changing a user’s password. It prompts you to enter a new password twicefor the given user. If the entries are identical, this immediately becomes thenew password. If you do not supply a user, the command will attempt to changethe password whose username matches the current user.

  • —database DATABASE
  • Specifies the database to query for the user. Defaults to default.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin changepassword ringo

createsuperuser

  • django-admin createsuperuser
  • This command is only available if Django’s authentication system (django.contrib.auth) is installed.

Creates a superuser account (a user who has all permissions). This isuseful if you need to create an initial superuser account or if you need toprogrammatically generate superuser accounts for your site(s).

When run interactively, this command will prompt for a password forthe new superuser account. When run non-interactively, you can providea password by setting the DJANGO_SUPERUSER_PASSWORD environment variable.Otherwise, no password will be set, and the superuser account will not be ableto log in until a password has been manually set for it.

In non-interactive mode, theUSERNAME_FIELD and requiredfields (listed inREQUIRED_FIELDS) fall back toDJANGOSUPERUSER<uppercase_field_name> environment variables, unless theyare overridden by a command line argument. For example, to provide an emailfield, you can use DJANGO_SUPERUSER_EMAIL environment variable.

Changed in Django 3.0:Support for using DJANGOSUPERUSER_PASSWORD andDJANGO_SUPERUSER<uppercase_field_name> environment variables was added.

  • —noinput, —no-input

  • Suppresses all user prompts. If a suppressed prompt cannot be resolvedautomatically, the command will exit with error code 1.

  • —username USERNAME

  • —email EMAIL

  • The username and email address for the new account can be supplied byusing the —username and —email arguments on the commandline. If either of those is not supplied, createsuperuser will prompt forit when running interactively.

  • —database DATABASE

  • Specifies the database into which the superuser object will be saved.

You can subclass the management command and override get_input_data() if youwant to customize data input and validation. Consult the source code fordetails on the existing implementation and the method’s parameters. For example,it could be useful if you have a ForeignKey inREQUIRED_FIELDS and want toallow creating an instance instead of entering the primary key of an existinginstance.

django.contrib.contenttypes

remove_stale_contenttypes

Deletes stale content types (from deleted models) in your database. Any objectsthat depend on the deleted content types will also be deleted. A list ofdeleted objects will be displayed before you confirm it’s okay to proceed withthe deletion.

  • —database DATABASE
  • Specifies the database to use. Defaults to default.

django.contrib.gis

ogrinspect

This command is only available if GeoDjango(django.contrib.gis) is installed.

Please refer to its description in the GeoDjangodocumentation.

django.contrib.sessions

clearsessions

  • django-admin clearsessions
  • Can be run as a cron job or directly to clean out expired sessions.

django.contrib.sitemaps

ping_google

This command is only available if the Sitemaps framework (django.contrib.sitemaps) is installed.

Please refer to its description in the Sitemapsdocumentation.

django.contrib.staticfiles

collectstatic

This command is only available if the static files application (django.contrib.staticfiles) is installed.

Please refer to its description in thestaticfiles documentation.

findstatic

This command is only available if the static files application (django.contrib.staticfiles) is installed.

Please refer to its description in the staticfiles documentation.

Default options

Although some commands may allow their own custom options, every commandallows for the following options:

  • —pythonpath PYTHONPATH
  • Adds the given filesystem path to the Python import search path. If thisisn’t provided, django-admin will use the PYTHONPATH environmentvariable.

This option is unnecessary in manage.py, because it takes care of settingthe Python path for you.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin migrate --pythonpath='/home/djangoprojects/myproject'
  • —settings SETTINGS
  • Specifies the settings module to use. The settings module should be in Pythonpackage syntax, e.g. mysite.settings. If this isn’t provided,django-admin will use the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.

This option is unnecessary in manage.py, because it usessettings.py from the current project by default.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin migrate --settings=mysite.settings
  • —traceback
  • Displays a full stack trace when a CommandErroris raised. By default, django-admin will show an error message when aCommandError occurs and a full stack trace for any other exception.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin migrate --traceback
  • —verbosity {0,1,2,3}, -v {0,1,2,3}

  • Specifies the amount of notification and debug information that a commandshould print to the console.

  • 0 means no output.

  • 1 means normal output (default).
  • 2 means verbose output.
  • 3 means very verbose output.Example usage:
  1. django-admin migrate --verbosity 2
  • —no-color
  • Disables colorized command output. Some commands format their output to becolorized. For example, errors will be printed to the console in red and SQLstatements will be syntax highlighted.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin runserver --no-color
  • —force-color
  • New in Django 2.2:

Forces colorization of the command output if it would otherwise be disabledas discussed in Syntax coloring. For example, you may want to pipecolored output to another command.

  • —skip-checks
  • New in Django 3.0:

Skips running system checks prior to running the command. This option is onlyavailable if therequires_system_checks commandattribute is set to True.

Example usage:

  1. django-admin migrate --skip-checks

Extra niceties

Syntax coloring

The django-admin / manage.py commands will use prettycolor-coded output if your terminal supports ANSI-colored output. Itwon’t use the color codes if you’re piping the command’s output toanother program unless the —force-color option is used.

Under Windows, the native console doesn’t support ANSI escape sequences so bydefault there is no color output. But you can install the ANSICONthird-party tool, the Django commands will detect its presence and will makeuse of its services to color output just like on Unix-based platforms.

The colors used for syntax highlighting can be customized. Djangoships with three color palettes:

  • dark, suited to terminals that show white text on a blackbackground. This is the default palette.
  • light, suited to terminals that show black text on a whitebackground.
  • nocolor, which disables syntax highlighting.You select a palette by setting a DJANGO_COLORS environmentvariable to specify the palette you want to use. For example, tospecify the light palette under a Unix or OS/X BASH shell, youwould run the following at a command prompt:
  1. export DJANGO_COLORS="light"

You can also customize the colors that are used. Django specifies anumber of roles in which color is used:

  • error - A major error.
  • notice - A minor error.
  • success - A success.
  • warning - A warning.
  • sql_field - The name of a model field in SQL.
  • sql_coltype - The type of a model field in SQL.
  • sql_keyword - An SQL keyword.
  • sql_table - The name of a model in SQL.
  • http_info - A 1XX HTTP Informational server response.
  • http_success - A 2XX HTTP Success server response.
  • http_not_modified - A 304 HTTP Not Modified server response.
  • http_redirect - A 3XX HTTP Redirect server response other than 304.
  • http_not_found - A 404 HTTP Not Found server response.
  • http_bad_request - A 4XX HTTP Bad Request server response other than 404.
  • http_server_error - A 5XX HTTP Server Error response.
  • migrate_heading - A heading in a migrations management command.

  • migrate_label - A migration name.Each of these roles can be assigned a specific foreground andbackground color, from the following list:

  • black

  • red
  • green
  • yellow
  • blue
  • magenta
  • cyan

  • whiteEach of these colors can then be modified by using the followingdisplay options:

  • bold

  • underscore
  • blink
  • reverse

  • concealA color specification follows one of the following patterns:

  • role=fg

  • role=fg/bg
  • role=fg,option,option
  • role=fg/bg,option,optionwhere role is the name of a valid color role, fg is theforeground color, bg is the background color and each optionis one of the color modifying options. Multiple color specificationsare then separated by a semicolon. For example:
  1. export DJANGO_COLORS="error=yellow/blue,blink;notice=magenta"

would specify that errors be displayed using blinking yellow on blue,and notices displayed using magenta. All other color roles would beleft uncolored.

Colors can also be specified by extending a base palette. If you puta palette name in a color specification, all the colors implied by thatpalette will be loaded. So:

  1. export DJANGO_COLORS="light;error=yellow/blue,blink;notice=magenta"

would specify the use of all the colors in the light color palette,except for the colors for errors and notices which would beoverridden as specified.

Bash completion

If you use the Bash shell, consider installing the Django bash completionscript, which lives in extras/django_bash_completion in the Django sourcedistribution. It enables tab-completion of django-admin andmanage.py commands, so you can, for instance…

  • Type django-admin.
  • Press [TAB] to see all available options.
  • Type sql, then [TAB], to see all available options whose names startwith sql.See Writing custom django-admin commands for how to add customized actions.

Running management commands from your code

  • django.core.management.callcommand(_name, *args, **options)

  • To call a management command from code use call_command.

  • name

  • the name of the command to call or a command object. Passing the name ispreferred unless the object is required for testing.
  • *args
  • a list of arguments accepted by the command. Arguments are passed to theargument parser, so you can use the same style as you would on the commandline. For example, call_command('flush', '—verbosity=0').
  • **options
  • named options accepted on the command-line. Options are passed to the commandwithout triggering the argument parser, which means you’ll need to pass thecorrect type. For example, call_command('flush', verbosity=0) (zero mustbe an integer rather than a string).Examples:
  1. from django.core import management
  2. from django.core.management.commands import loaddata
  3.  
  4. management.call_command('flush', verbosity=0, interactive=False)
  5. management.call_command('loaddata', 'test_data', verbosity=0)
  6. management.call_command(loaddata.Command(), 'test_data', verbosity=0)

Note that command options that take no arguments are passed as keywordswith True or False, as you can see with the interactive option above.

Named arguments can be passed by using either one of the following syntaxes:

  1. # Similar to the command line
  2. management.call_command('dumpdata', '--natural-foreign')
  3.  
  4. # Named argument similar to the command line minus the initial dashes and
  5. # with internal dashes replaced by underscores
  6. management.call_command('dumpdata', natural_foreign=True)
  7.  
  8. # `use_natural_foreign_keys` is the option destination variable
  9. management.call_command('dumpdata', use_natural_foreign_keys=True)

Some command options have different names when using call_command() insteadof django-admin or manage.py. For example, django-admincreatesuperuser —no-input translates to call_command('createsuperuser',interactive=False). To find what keyword argument name to use forcall_command(), check the command’s source code for the dest argumentpassed to parser.add_argument().

Command options which take multiple options are passed a list:

  1. management.call_command('dumpdata', exclude=['contenttypes', 'auth'])

The return value of the call_command() function is the same as the returnvalue of the handle() method of the command.

Output redirection

Note that you can redirect standard output and error streams as all commandssupport the stdout and stderr options. For example, you could write:

  1. with open('/path/to/command_output', 'w') as f:
  2.     management.call_command('dumpdata', stdout=f)