Setup Django with mod_wsgi on your Mac

September 25, 2009

Setup Django with mod_wsgi on your Mac

In spirit of writing this down so I don’t forget, I humbly submit this to the Internets in the vain hope that it helps someone else.

For the purposes of this I’m assuming that you have Python and Django installed. I use Macports but feel free to use Homebrew or any other fine package manager.

Install apache2 and mod_wsgi

~ $ sudo port install apache2 mod_wsgi

You’ll probably want to to add /opt/local/apache2/bin/ to your $PATH in ~/.profile
Create an httpd.conf file

cd /opt/local/apache2/conf
sudo cp httpd.conf.sample httpd.conf

Add the mod_wsgi module to httpd.conf

LoadModule wsgi_module modules/mod_wsgi.so

Make sure the vhosts config file is loaded in httpd.conf

Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Set up a vhost for your domain in /opt/local/apache2/conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf. Note the YOUR-USERNAME-HERE place holder.

NameVirtualHost *:80
 
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName local.yourdomain.com
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/local.yourdomain.com-error_log"
 
    <Directory /Users/YOUR-USERNAME-HERE/Code/wsgi_apps>
        AllowOverride All
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
 
    WSGIDaemonProcess local.yourdomain.com processes=1 threads=1 maximum-requests=1
    WSGIProcessGroup local.yourdomain.com
 
    WSGIScriptAlias / "/Users/YOUR-USERNAME-HERE/Code/wsgi_apps/local.yourdomain.com.wsgi"
</VirtualHost>

Note: I amended the WSGIDaemonProcess line above so your code would get refreshed with each new request.

The ~/Code/wsgi_apps path is arbitrary, that’s just where I keep mine.

Many folks like to keep their .wsgi files in a /public directory inside their Django project. I like to work without a project folder, but either way, substitute the path to your wsgi file for /Users/YOUR-USERNAME-HERE/Code/wsgi_apps.

Check your Apache conf before your wreck your apache conf

$ sudo apachectl configtest
Syntax OK

Set up an alias for your domain in /etc/hosts

127.0.0.1       localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost 
fe80::1%lo0     localhost
127.0.0.1 local.yourdomain.com #Local Django server

Set up your actual wsgi file

import site
site.addsitedir('/Users/YOUR-USERNAME-HERE/.virtualenvs/YOUR-VIRTUALENV/lib/python2.4/site-packages')
 
import os
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mysettingsmodule.local'
 
import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

I’m using Ian Bicking’s virtualenv and Doug Hellmann’s kick-ass virtualenvwrapper, and you should be too.

If you’re not and you’re able to ignore the cries of all the puppies and bunnies you’re killing because you’re not, then you’ll want to remove the first two lines.

Fire up Apache

$ sudo apachectl start

That should be it! Go to http://local.yourdomain.com in your favorite browser and you should see your Django project.

Filed under: Django,Programming,Python

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Iraê

Very nice writeup! It helped me a lot!

But for me one I had to append my project folder to the path, like so:

import os, sys sys.path = ['/Users/USERNAME_HERE/code/PROJECT_NAME/'] + sys.path os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = ‘settings’

Where you replace USERNAME_HERE and PROJECT_NAME by your values.

Also in my settings.py file I did:

PROJECT_PATH = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(file)) TEMPLATE_DIRS = ( PROJECT_PATH + ‘/templates/’, )

heisel.org

September 25, 2009

Setup Django with mod_wsgi on your Mac

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