Question

I have this kind of setup :

1. Overridden BaseRunserverCommand that adds another option (–token) that would get a string token.
2. Store it in the app called “vault” as a global variable
3. Then continue executing the BaseRunserverCommand

Now later when I try to get the value of this global variable after the server started, I am unable to see the value. Is this going out of scope? How to store this one time token that is entered before the django starts?

Answer 1

Judging by the name of the command line option, this sounds like a configuration variable — why not put it in settings.py like all the other configurations?

If it’s a secure value that you don’t want checked in to version control, one pattern I’ve seen is to put secure or environment-sensitive (i.e. only makes sense in production or development) configurations in a local_settings.py file which is not checked in to version control, then add to the end of your settings.py:

try:
    from local_settings import *
except ImportError:
    # if you require a local_settings to be present,
    # you could let this exception rise, or raise a
    # more specific exception here
    pass

(Note that some people like to invert the import relationship and then use --settings on the command line with runserver — this works, too, but requires that you always remember to use --settings.)