Django get environment variables from apache

Question

I cannot seem to get Django to read the settings I configure from the environment variables. I have followed some guides online, and found some other questions, and as a result have tried configuring as below:

Apache Config:

WSGIScriptAlias "/v4" /usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/wsgi.py
WSGIPythonPath /usr/local/myproject4:/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages

<VirtualHost *:8000>

        SetEnv MYPROJECT_SECRET_KEY 'xxx'
        SetEnv MYPROJECT_DB_USER 'xxxx'
        SetEnv MYPROJECT_DB_PASS 'xxxx'

        <Directory /usr/local/myproject4/myproject4>
                <Files wsgi.py>
                        Order deny,allow
                        Allow from all
                </Files>
        </Directory>


</VirtualHost>

My wsgi.py file looks contains this (to retrieve the settings):

import os
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "myproject4.settings")

from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
_application = WSGIHandler()

def application(environ, start_response):
    for key, value in environ:
        if key.startswith('MYPROJECT_'):
            os.environ[key] = value;    
    return _application(environ, start_response)

However whenever I try to retrieve the settings I get this:

[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] mod_wsgi (pid=21912): Target WSGI script '/usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/wsgi.py' cannot be loaded as Python module.
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] mod_wsgi (pid=21912): Exception occurred processing WSGI script '/usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/wsgi.py'.
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/wsgi.py", line 14, in <module>
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 11, in <module>
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     from django.core.handlers import base
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 12, in <module>
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     from django.db import connections, transaction
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 83, in <module>
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     signals.request_started.connect(reset_queries)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/dispatch/dispatcher.py", line 88, in connect
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     if settings.DEBUG:
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 54, in __getattr__
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     self._setup(name)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 49, in _setup
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 128, in __init__
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     mod = importlib.import_module(self.SETTINGS_MODULE)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/env/lib/python2.7/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 40, in import_module
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     __import__(name)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/settings.py", line 29, in <module>
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     SECRET_KEY = get_env_variable('MYPROJECT_SECRET_KEY')
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]   File "/usr/local/myproject4/myproject4/settings.py", line 23, in get_env_variable
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]     raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)
[Wed Nov 20 17:07:08 2013] [error] [client xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx] ImproperlyConfigured: Set the MYPROJECT_SECRET_KEY environment variable

Really appreciate if someone could help me identify what I am doing wrong.

Answer 1

I needed the same feature to deal with prod/dev environments... and found out the following article: http://drumcoder.co.uk/blog/2010/nov/12/apache-environment-variables-and-mod_wsgi/

I just tried it, and it worked at once. Pay attention to the Handler's name that is prefixed with a underscode:

_application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()