Different settings.py files for server and development

[Dana]

Hello everyone,

I know a form of this question has been asked before on this group but
I can't for the life of me find the thread.

I am wondering how I can have a generic settings.py file that contains
all my basic settings and then have a settings-local.py (or
whatever...) and have that contain custom settings such as DEBUG=True,
etc... Ideally the settings-local.py file would *only* have the custom
settings, and nothing else, but I cannot seem to get this to work. For
example:

In settings.py I would have default settings:

settings.py
-------------------------------------------
DEBUG = False

DATABASE_ENGINE = 'mysql'

DATABASE_NAME = 'something'

DATABASE_USER = 'root'
DATABASE_PASSWORD = ''

MEDIA_ROOT = '/home/user/media/'
MEDIA_URL = 'http://media.example.com/'

ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/admin_media/'

INSTALLED_APPS = (
....
)

...... etc

-------------------------------------------
and in settings-local.py I would override the settings:

# settings-local.py
-------------------------------------------
DEBUG = True

DATABASE_USER = 'username'
DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'somethinghere123'
-------------------------------------------

I would like some way to have settings-local import my settings.py
file and then override specific settings. Anyone know how to do this
cleanly?

Thanks!

[felix]

at the very bottom of settings.py :

from local_settings import *


this overwrites just the imported keys/values

-flx

[Dana]

Sweet, I knew it was simple :)

Thanks!

On Oct 23, 3:54 pm, felix <crucialfe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> at the very bottom of settings.py :
>
> from local_settings import *
>
> this overwrites just the imported keys/values
>
> -flx
>

[Ned Batchelder]

In settings.py:

try:
from settings_local import *
except:
pass

--Ned.
http://nedbatchelder.com

--
Ned Batchelder, http://nedbatchelder.com

[Dana]

Ned/Felix,

Ok, I tried your guys solution but it does not seem to be working for
me, so Im wondering where I goofed.

Here is what ive got

My settings.py and settings-custom.py file are here:

config/
settings.py
settings-custom.py

The directory containing config is on the PythonPath, so an import of:

from config.settings-custom import *

... should work correct?

In settings.py I have DEBUG=False and in settings-custom.py I have
DEBUG=True, but Im getting my 500.html page, so that means it is only
respecting the DEBUG setting in settings.py.

Any ideas?

Thanks

On Oct 23, 5:04 pm, Ned Batchelder <n...@nedbatchelder.com> wrote:
> In settings.py:
>
>     try:
>        from settings_local import *
>     except:
>        pass
>

> --Ned.http://nedbatchelder.com

[Dana]

Never mind, answered my own problem. I had a missing setting that was
causing a 500 error before it could access the settings-custom.py.

Your solutions worked!

Thanks!

[Ned Batchelder]

settings-custom isn't a valid Python file name, because a Python identifier can't have a dash in it.  Use an underscore.

--Ned.
http://nedbatchelder.com

Dana wrote:

[Ned Batchelder]

And BTW, my bad.  Change the except: line to except ImportError, then the syntax error from the dash will be apparent in your 500 page.

--Ned.
http://nedbatchelder.com

[D. Woodman]

Thanks Ned!

Cheers

[Ross Dakin]

I do it like this:


# settings.py
[ ... ]
try:
from settings_dev import *
except ImportError:
pass


# settings_dev.py
import os

DEBUG = True
DATABASE_ENGINE = 'sqlite3'
DATABASE_NAME = 'dev.db'
MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.abspath('../') + '/public/media/'
MEDIA_URL = 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/media/'
TEMPLATE_DIRS = (os.path.abspath('') + '/templates')

[Doug Harris]

One thing I've noticed is that some settings don't stick if I override
them in local_settings.py.

One key example is CACHE_BACKEND. Has anybody seen this sort of
behavior?

On Oct 23, 5:54 pm, felix <crucialfe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> at the very bottom of settings.py :
>
> from local_settings import *
>
> this overwrites just the imported keys/values
>
> -flx
>