How to install Django

This document describes Django version 0.96. For current documentation, go here.

This document will get you up and running with Django.

Install Python

Being a Python Web framework, Django requires Python.

It works with any Python version 2.3 and higher.

Get Python at www.python.org. If you’re running Linux or Mac OS X, you probably already have it installed.

Install Apache and mod_python

If you just want to experiment with Django, skip this step. Django comes with its own Web server for development purposes.

If you want to use Django on a production site, use Apache with mod_python. mod_python is similar to mod_perl — it embeds Python within Apache and loads Python code into memory when the server starts. Code stays in memory throughout the life of an Apache process, which leads to significant performance gains over other server arrangements. Make sure you have Apache installed, with the mod_python module activated. Django requires Apache 2.x and mod_python 3.x.

See How to use Django with mod_python for information on how to configure mod_python once you have it installed.

If you can’t use mod_python for some reason, fear not: Django follows the WSGI spec, which allows it to run on a variety of server platforms. See the server-arrangements wiki page for specific installation instructions for each platform.

Get your database running

If you plan to use Django’s database API functionality, you’ll need to make sure a database server is running. Django works with PostgreSQL (recommended), MySQL and SQLite.

Additionally, you’ll need to make sure your Python database bindings are installed.

If you’re using PostgreSQL, you’ll need the psycopg package (version 2 is recommended with postgresql_psycopg2 backend, version 1.1 works also with the postgresql` backend).

If you’re on Windows, check out the unofficial compiled Windows version.
If you’re using MySQL, you’ll need MySQLdb, version 1.2.1p2 or higher.
If you’re using SQLite, you’ll need pysqlite. Use version 2.0.3 or higher.

Install the Django code

Installation instructions are slightly different depending on whether you’re using the latest official version or the latest development version.

It’s easy either way.

Installing the official version

Check the distribution specific notes to see if your platform/distribution provides official Django packages/installers. Distribution-provided packages will typically allow for automatic installation of dependancies and easy upgrade paths.
Download Django-0.95.tar.gz from our download page.
tar xzvf Django-0.95.tar.gz
cd Django-0.95
sudo python setup.py install

Note that the last command will automatically download and install setuptools if you don’t already have it installed. This requires a working Internet connection and may cause problems on Python 2.5. If you run into problems, try using our development version by following the instructions below. The development version no longer uses setuptools nor requires an Internet connection.

The command will install Django in your Python installation’s site-packages directory.

Installing the development version

If you’d like to be able to update your Django code occasionally with the latest bug fixes and improvements, follow these instructions:

Make sure you have Subversion installed.

Check out the Django code into your Python site-packages directory. On Linux / Mac OSX / Unix, do this:

svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/ django_src
ln -s `pwd`/django_src/django /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/django

(In the above line, change python2.3 to match your current Python version.)

On Windows, do this:

svn co http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/django c:\Python24\lib\site-packages\django

Copy the file django_src/django/bin/django-admin.py to somewhere on your system path, such as /usr/local/bin (Unix) or C:\Python24\Scripts (Windows). This step simply lets you type django-admin.py from within any directory, rather than having to qualify the command with the full path to the file.

You don’t have to run python setup.py install, because that command takes care of steps 2 and 3 for you.

When you want to update your copy of the Django source code, just run the command svn update from within the django directory. When you do this, Subversion will automatically download any changes.

Questions/Feedback

If you notice errors with this documentation, please open a ticket and let us know!

Please only use the ticket tracker for criticisms and improvements on the docs. For tech support, ask in the IRC channel or post to the django-users list.

Django documentation