Unknown command: 'collectstatic' Django 1.7

Question

I want do static files. I use Django 1.7 and Python 2.7.5 and openshift hosting. When I try to run:

python manage.py collectstatic

I get:

Unknown command: 'collectstatic' Type 'manage.py help' for usage.

In my settings.py:

... 
INSTALLED_APPS = (
   'django.contrib.staticfiles',

   'django.contrib.admin',

   'django.contrib.auth',

   'django.contrib.contenttypes',

   'django.contrib.sessions',

   'django.contrib.messages',

   'testapp',

)

TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
   'django.core.context_processors.static',

)
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME'],
        'USER': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_USERNAME'], 
        'PASSWORD': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PASSWORD'],
        'HOST': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_HOST'],
        'PORT': os.environ['OPENSHIFT_MYSQL_DB_PORT'],
    }
}
STATIC_ROOT = ''    
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
...

Many people had this proble. They forgot 'django.contrib.staticfiles' in INSTALLED_APPS. But I have this setting.

Ok, I run help:

Options:
 -v VERBOSITY, --verbosity=VERBOSITY
                       Verbosity level; 0=minimal output, 1=normal output,
                       2=verbose output, 3=very verbose output
 --settings=SETTINGS   The Python path to a settings module, e.g.
                       "myproject.settings.main". If this isn't provided, the
                       DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be
                       used.
 --pythonpath=PYTHONPATH
                       A directory to add to the Python path, e.g.
                       "/home/djangoprojects/myproject".
 --traceback           Raise on exception
 --no-color            Don't colorize the command output.
 --version             show program's version number and exit
 -h, --help            show this help message and exit

 Traceback (most recent call last):
 ...
 File "c:\Python27\lib\os.py", line 423, in __getitem__
   return self.data[key.upper()]
 KeyError: 'OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME'

OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME - environment variable (link: https://www.openshift.com/page/openshift-environment-variables ) Can you help me?

Answer 1

It looks like it can't find the environment variable OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME . You should try setting it and see if that fixes the problem. Django can't import your settings because it can't find that environment variable.

Those environment variables look like they are set by openshift. You are probably running that collectstatic command in a shell that has not had them set. You'll either need to set them in the shell or edit your settings.py to be able to handle this situation. Something like this would work:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.mysql',
        'NAME': os.environ.get('OPENSHIFT_APP_NAME', 'A sensible default'),