Django cookiecutter with postgresql setup on Ubuntu 20.4 can't migrate

Question

I installed django cookiecutter in Ubuntu 20.4 with postgresql when I try to make migrate to the database I get this error:

python manage.py migrate Traceback (most recent call last): File "manage.py", line 10, in execute_from_command_line(sys.argv) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/init.py", line 381, in execute_from_command_line utility.execute() File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/init.py", line 375, in execute self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 323, in run_from_argv self.execute(*args, **cmd_options) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 361, in execute self.check() File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 387, in check all_issues = self._run_checks( File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/management/commands/migrate.py", line 64, in _run_checks issues = run_checks(tags=[Tags.database]) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/checks/registry.py", line 72, in run_checks new_errors = check(app_configs=app_configs) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/core/checks/database.py", line 9, in check_database_backends for conn in connections.all(): File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 216, in all return [self[alias] for alias in self] File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 213, in iter return iter(self.databases) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 80, in get res = instance.dict[self.name] = self.func(instance) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 147, in databases self._databases = settings.DATABASES File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 79, in getattr self._setup(name) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 66, in _setup self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module) File "/home/mais/PycharmProjects/django_cookiecutter_task/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/django/conf/init.py", line 176, in init raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.") django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

I did the whole instructions in cookiecutter docs and createdb what is the wrong?

Answer 1

Python libraries are so many and to make things simple and to enable the code to be re-usable, modules call each other. First of all, don't be scared on seeing such a big error. It is only a traceback to the error, as one code calls the other, which calls the other. To debug any such problem, it's important to see the first and last .py file names. In your case, the nesting in the traceback is like this:

Traceback Flowchart

So, the key problem for you is The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty. I would recommend putting the secret key under the "config/.env" file, as mentioned here:

https://wemake-django-template.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pages/template/django.html#secret-settings-in-production

Initially, you should find the SECRET_KEY inside the setting.py file of the project folder. But it needs to be inside .env file in production/LIVE environment. And NEVER post the SECRET_KEY of live environments on github or even here, as it's a security risk.

Answer 2

Your main problem is very clear in the logs.

You need to set your environment SECRET_KEY give it a value, and it should skip this error message, it might throw another error if there are some other configurations that are not set properly.