ImportError with Django mod_wsgi

Question

I want to move a Django project from test server to Apache (version 2.2.15 on CentOS). I installed mod_wsgi using [1] and am trying to mount my project as a wsgi application using [2].

I followed the Hello World example (helpful SO thread [3]) by putting the test wsgi.py file in the same directory as my existing Django project file (wsgi.py). This works (eg, I can access via wget).

<VirtualHost *:80>
   DocumentRoot <abs_path>/myproject/myproject
   WSGIScriptAlias /wsgi  <abs_path>/myproject/myproject/test_wsgi.wsgi
</VirtualHost>

---

With this in place, I made a modification to the Apache config file to point to my Django project wsgi file (below) based upon the mod_wsgi and Django documentation [2,4].

WSGIPythonPath <abs_path>/myproject/myproject

<VirtualHost *:80>

   DocumentRoot <abs_path>/myproject/myproject
   WSGIScriptAlias /django  <abs_path>/myproject/myproject/wsgi.py

   <Directory <abs_path>/myproject/myproject>
            <Files wsgi.py>
                    # Require all granted
                    Order deny,allow
                    Allow from all
            </Files>
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

This throws an "500 Internal Server Error:" "ImportError: No module named django.core.wsgi"

---

mod_wsgi is compiled against Python 2.7, which has Django installed [5].

ldd mod_wsgi.so 
linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fff3ed30000)
libpython2.7.so.1.0 => /usr/local/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 (0x00007f641e11d000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f641dee8000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib64/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f641dce4000)
libutil.so.1 => /lib64/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f641dae1000)
libm.so.6 => /lib64/libm.so.6 (0x00007f641d85c000)
libc.so.6 => /lib64/libc.so.6 (0x00007f641d4c9000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000003c14e00000)

---

Based upon [6], I added path to python2.7 site packages in wsgi.py:

# add the myproject project path into the sys.path
sys.path.append('<PATH_TO_MY_DJANGO_PROJECT>/myproject')
# add the python2.7 site-packages path to the sys.path
sys.path.append('<PATH_TO_python2.7>/Lib/site-packages')

I also added path to python2.7 in httpd.conf:

WSGIPythonPath <PATH_TO_PROJECT>:<PATH_TO_python2.7>/Lib/site-packages

---

Still, I get "500 Internal Server Error:" "ImportError: No module named django.core.wsgi" .

Any advice?

---

[1] http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/QuickInstallationGuide

[2] http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/QuickConfigurationGuide

[3] Hello World in mod_wsgi

[4] https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi/

[5] mod_wsgi isn't honoring WSGIPythonHome

[6] ImportError: No module named django.core.wsgi Apache + VirtualEnv + AWS + WSGI

Answer 1

Go read the actual Django documentation. In that you will see requirements for setting up the Python module search path. You should no evidence of having done that.

• https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi/

Also, do not set DocumentRoot to be a parent directory of your Django project. You are opening yourself up to security problems. More so because you are mounting the Django application at a sub URL, which means that your project source code including settings file with database passwords etc is now downloadable by remote users from the root of the site.