Django ImproperlyConfigured exception when running commands from django-admin, but not manage.py

Question

When I run django-admin migrate , I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/django-admin", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(execute_from_command_line())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 353, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 345, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 195, in fetch_command
    klass = load_command_class(app_name, subcommand)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 39, in load_command_class
    module = import_module('%s.management.commands.%s' % (app_name, name))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
    __import__(name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 16, in <module>
    from django.db.migrations.autodetector import MigrationAutodetector
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/autodetector.py", line 13, in <module>
    from django.db.migrations.questioner import MigrationQuestioner
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/questioner.py", line 12, in <module>
    from .loader import MigrationLoader
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/loader.py", line 10, in <module>
    from django.db.migrations.recorder import MigrationRecorder
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/recorder.py", line 12, in <module>
    class MigrationRecorder(object):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/recorder.py", line 26, in MigrationRecorder
    class Migration(models.Model):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/migrations/recorder.py", line 27, in Migration
    app = models.CharField(max_length=255)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py", line 1072, in __init__
    super(CharField, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py", line 166, in __init__
    self.db_tablespace = db_tablespace or settings.DEFAULT_INDEX_TABLESPACE
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 55, in __getattr__
    self._setup(name)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 41, in _setup
    % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting DEFAULT_INDEX_TABLESPACE, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

The same command on admin;py: python admin.py works perfectly. I guess this means I can just use admin.py, but I'd like to understand why django-admin doesn't find my app's configration. What's the process it uses? What could be the issue?

Answer 1

You got the error, because when running django-admin it doesn't know what settings module to use. You may specify it via evironment variable as suggested in the error message, or just use manage.py in your project.

django-admin is Django's command-line utility for administrative tasks.

In addition, manage.py is automatically created in each Django project. manage.py does the same thing as django-admin but takes care of a few things for you:

• It puts your project's package on sys.path.
• It sets the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable so that it points to your project's settings.py file.

See more here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.9/ref/django-admin/