adminindex [appname appname …]

Prints the admin-index template snippet for the given appnames.

Use admin-index template snippets if you want to customize the look and feel of your admin’s index page. See Tutorial 2 for more information.

createcachetable [tablename]

Creates a cache table named tablename for use with the database cache backend. See the cache documentation for more information.

dbshell

Runs the command-line client for the database engine specified in your DATABASE_ENGINE setting, with the connection parameters specified in your DATABASE_USER, DATABASE_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.

This command assumes the programs are on your PATH so that a simple call to the program name (psql, mysql, sqlite3) will find the program in the right place. There’s no way to specify the location of the program manually.

diffsettings

Displays differences between the current settings file and Django’s default settings.

Settings that don’t appear in the defaults are followed by "###". For example, the default settings don’t define ROOT_URLCONF, so ROOT_URLCONF is followed by "###" in the output of diffsettings.

Note that Django’s default settings live in django/conf/global_settings.py, if you’re ever curious to see the full list of defaults.

dumpdata [appname appname …]

Output to standard output all data in the database associated with the named application(s).

By default, the database will be dumped in JSON format. If you want the output to be in another format, use the --format option (e.g., format=xml). You may specify any Django serialization backend (including any user specified serialization backends named in the SERIALIZATION_MODULES setting).

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

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

flush

Return the database to the state it was in immediately after syncdb was executed. This means that all data will be removed from the database, any post-synchronization handlers will be re-executed, and the initial_data fixture will be re-installed.

inspectdb

Introspects the database tables in the database pointed-to by the DATABASE_NAME setting and outputs a Django model module (a models.py file) to standard output.

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 within it.

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

• If inspectdb cannot map a column’s type to a model field type, it’ll use TextField and will insert the Python comment 'This field type is a guess.' next to the field in the generated model.
• 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', with the db_column attribute set to 'for'. inspectdb will insert the Python comment 'Field renamed because it was a Python reserved word.' next to the field.

This feature is meant as a shortcut, not as definitive model generation. After you run it, you’ll want to look over the generated models yourself to make customizations. In particular, you’ll need to rearrange models’ order, so that models that refer to other models are ordered properly.

Primary keys are automatically introspected for PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite, in which case Django puts in the primary_key=True where needed.

inspectdb works with PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQLite. Foreign-key detection only works in PostgreSQL and with certain types of MySQL tables.

loaddata [fixture fixture …]

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

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

Django will search in three locations for fixtures:

1. In the fixtures directory of every installed application
2. In any directory named in the FIXTURE_DIRS setting
3. In the literal path named by the fixture

Django will load any and all fixtures it finds in these locations that match the provided fixture names.

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

django-admin.py loaddata mydata.json

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

If you omit the extension, Django will search all available fixture types for a matching fixture. For example:

django-admin.py loaddata mydata

would look for any fixture of any fixture type called mydata. If a fixture directory contained mydata.json, that fixture would be loaded as a JSON fixture. However, if two fixtures with the same name but different fixture type are discovered (for example, if mydata.json and mydata.xml were found in the same fixture directory), fixture installation will be aborted, and any data installed in the call to loaddata will be removed from the database.

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

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

would search <appname>/fixtures/foo/bar/mydata.json for each installed application, <dirname>/foo/bar/mydata.json for each directory in FIXTURE_DIRS, and the literal path foo/bar/mydata.json.

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

reset [appname appname …]

Executes the equivalent of sqlreset for the given appnames.

runfcgi [options]

Starts a set of FastCGI processes suitable for use with any web server which supports the FastCGI protocol. See the FastCGI deployment documentation for details. Requires the Python FastCGI module from flup.

runserver [optional port number, or ipaddr:port]

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 an IP address and port number explicitly.

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

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

The development server automatically reloads Python code for each request, as needed. You don’t need to restart the server for code changes to take effect.

When you start the server, and each time you change Python code while the server is running, the server will validate all of your installed models. (See the validate command below.) If the validator finds errors, it will print them to standard output, but it won’t stop the server.

You can run as many servers as you want, as long as they’re on separate ports. Just execute django-admin.py runserver more than once.

Note that the default IP address, 127.0.0.1, is not accessible from other machines on your network. To make your development server viewable to other machines on the network, use its own IP address (e.g. 192.168.2.1) or 0.0.0.0.

django-admin.py runserver 7000

django-admin.py runserver 1.2.3.4:7000

django-admin.py runserver --noreload

shell

Starts the Python interactive interpreter.

Django will use IPython, if it’s installed. If you have IPython installed and want to force use of the “plain” Python interpreter, use the --plain option, like so:

django-admin.py shell --plain

sql [appname appname …]

Prints the CREATE TABLE SQL statements for the given appnames.

sqlall [appname appname …]

Prints the CREATE TABLE and initial-data SQL statements for the given appnames.

Refer to the description of sqlinitialdata for an explanation of how to specify initial data.

sqlclear [appname appname …]

Prints the DROP TABLE SQL statements for the given appnames.

sqlcustom [appname appname …]

Prints the custom SQL statements for the given appnames.

For each model in each specified app, this command looks for the file <appname>/sql/<modelname>.sql, where <appname> is the given appname and <modelname> is the model’s name in lowercase. For example, if you have an app news that includes a Story model, sqlinitialdata will attempt to read a file news/sql/story.sql and append it to the output of this command.

Each of the SQL files, if given, is expected to contain valid SQL. The SQL files are piped directly into the database after all of the models’ table-creation statements have been executed. Use this SQL hook to make any table modifications, or insert any SQL functions into the database.

Note that the order in which the SQL files are processed is undefined.

sqlindexes [appname appname …]

Prints the CREATE INDEX SQL statements for the given appnames.

sqlreset [appname appname …]

Prints the DROP TABLE SQL, then the CREATE TABLE SQL, for the given appnames.

sqlsequencereset [appname appname …]

Prints the SQL statements for resetting PostgreSQL sequences for the given appnames.

See http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2004/04/21/postgres for more information.

startapp [appname]

Creates a Django app directory structure for the given app name in the current directory.

startproject [projectname]

Creates a Django project directory structure for the given project name in the current directory.

syncdb

Creates the database tables for all apps in INSTALLED_APPS whose tables have not already been created.

Use this command when you’ve added new applications to your project and want to install them in the database. This includes any apps shipped with Django that might be in INSTALLED_APPS by default. When you start a new project, run this command to install the default apps.

If you’re installing the django.contrib.auth application, syncdb will give you the option of creating a superuser immediately.

syncdb will also search for and install any fixture named initial_data. See the documentation for loaddata for details on the specification of fixture data files.

test

Discover and run tests for all installed models. See Testing Django applications for more information.

validate

Validates all installed models (according to the INSTALLED_APPS setting) and prints validation errors to standard output.

—settings

Example usage:

django-admin.py syncdb --settings=mysite.settings

Explicitly specifies the settings module to use. The settings module should be in Python package syntax, e.g. mysite.settings. If this isn’t provided, django-admin.py will use the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable.

Note that this option is unnecessary in manage.py, because it takes care of setting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE for you.

—pythonpath

Example usage:

django-admin.py syncdb --pythonpath='/home/djangoprojects/myproject'

Adds the given filesystem path to the Python import search path. If this isn’t provided, django-admin.py will use the PYTHONPATH environment variable.

Note that this option is unnecessary in manage.py, because it takes care of setting the Python path for you.

—format

Example usage:

django-admin.py dumpdata --format=xml

Specifies the output format that will be used. The name provided must be the name of a registered serializer.

—help

Displays a help message that includes a terse list of all available actions and options.

—indent

Example usage:

django-admin.py dumpdata --indent=4

Specifies the number of spaces that will be used for indentation when pretty-printing output. By default, output will not be pretty-printed. Pretty-printing will only be enabled if the indent option is provided.

—noinput

Inform django-admin that the user should NOT be prompted for any input. Useful if the django-admin script will be executed as an unattended, automated script.

—noreload

Disable the use of the auto-reloader when running the development server.

—version

Displays the current Django version.

Example output:

0.9.1
0.9.1 (SVN)

—verbosity

Example usage:

django-admin.py syncdb --verbosity=2

Verbosity determines the amount of notification and debug information that will be printed to the console. ‘0’ is no output, ‘1’ is normal output, and 2 is verbose output.

—adminmedia

Example usage::

django-admin.py manage.py —adminmedia=/tmp/new-admin-style/

Tells Django where to find the various CSS and JavaScript files for the admin interface when running the development server. Normally these files are served out of the Django source tree, but because some designers customize these files for their site, this option allows you to test against custom versions.

Syntax coloring

The django-admin.py / manage.py commands that output SQL to standard output will use pretty color-coded output if your terminal supports ANSI-colored output. It won’t use the color codes if you’re piping the command’s output to another program.

Bash completion

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

• Type django-admin.py.
• Press [TAB] to see all available options.
• Type sql, then [TAB], to see all available options whose names start with sql.