Managing Django settings across multiple environments

I don't know about you, but when I typically work on a Django application I have at least two environments (Local and Production), and a lot of times I am working on these projects with at least one other person.

The way that django currently supports project settings is to have all settings in a settings.py file. This works fine if you are working by yourself in one environment, but once you add something else, it makes managing the settings a pain. One solution, which isn't very flexible is to make all environments have the same settings. That solution doesn't usually fly, so I prefer another approach.

I take my settings file and only put settings that will be the same for every install in there. Then I create a local_settings.py file in the same directory and put only settings that are environment specific in that file. Each environment is responsible for providing their own file and setting their own settings.

One important thing to remember, NEVER put the local_settings.py file in source control or else it will just be a matter of time before someone accidentally checks in their file and breaks everyone else. I typically do a Subversion ignore on the file.

I also create a file called local_settings.py.template that has all required settings and examples, and stick that one in source control. When you are setting up a new environment all you need to do is copy the local_settings.py.template and change the values for your ENV. Make sure you keep the local_settings.py.template file up to date.

short example of settings.py and local_settings.py

>> settings.py

import local_settings

# there is more above that I removed

DATABASE_ENGINE = local_settings.DATABASE_ENGINE
DATABASE_NAME = local_settings.DATABASE_NAME
DATABASE_USER = local_settings.DATABASE_USER
DATABASE_PASSWORD = local_settings.DATABASE_PASSWORD
DATABASE_HOST = local_settings.DATABASE_HOST
DATABASE_PORT = local_settings.DATABASE_PORT

# there is more below that I removed

>> local_settings.py

# there is more above that I removed

DATABASE_ENGINE = 'mysql'
DATABASE_NAME = 'dbname'
DATABASE_USER = 'dbusername'
DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'dbpassword'
DATABASE_HOST = ''
DATABASE_PORT = ''

# there is more below that I removed