How do I stop getting ImportError: Could not import settings 'mofin.settings' when using django with wsgi?

Question

I can't get wsgi to import my settings file for my project 'mofin'.

The list of errors from the apache error log are as follows

mod_wsgi (pid=4001): Exception occurred within WSGI script '/var/www/wsgi-scripts/django.wsgi'.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 228, in __call__
    self.load_middleware()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 31, in load_middleware
    for middleware_path in settings.MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES:
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 28, in __getattr__
    self._import_settings()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 59, in _import_settings
    self._target = Settings(settings_module)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 94, in __init__
    raise ImportError, "Could not import settings '%s' (Is it on sys.path? Does it have syntax errors?): %s" % (self.SETTINGS_MODULE, e)
ImportError: Could not import settings 'mofin.settings' (Is it on sys.path? Does it have syntax errors?): No module named mofin.settings

I got the "hello world!" wsgi app listed here(http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/QuickConfigurationGuide) to work fine.

The settings.py file loads fine with python manage.py (runserver|shell|syncdb|test store) as does the application.

Here is my wsgi file:

import os
import sys
sys.path.append('/home/django/mofin/trunk')
sys.path.append('/home/django/mofin/trunk/mofin')
print >> sys.stderr, sys.path
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'mofin.settings'

import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

the sys.path as printed in the error log is

['/usr/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/lib/python2.5', '/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0', '/home/django/mofin/trunk', '/home/django/mofin/trunk/mofin']

if I open an interactive shell with manage.py, sys.path is

['/home/django/mofin/trunk/mofin', '/usr/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/lib/python2.5', '/usr/lib/python2.5/plat-linux2', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-tk', '/usr/lib/python2.5/lib-dynload', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages', '/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/gtk-2.0']

My django settings file looks like this: # Django settings for mofin project.

DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = DEBUG

ADMINS = (
    # ('Dan xxxx', 'xxxx@yyyyyyyyyy.com'),
)

MANAGERS = ADMINS

DATABASE_ENGINE = 'mysql'           # 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'postgresql', 'mysql', 'sqlite3' or 'oracle'.
DATABASE_NAME = 'mofin'             # Or path to database file if using sqlite3.
DATABASE_USER = 'aaaaaa'             # Not used with sqlite3.
DATABASE_PASSWORD = 'bbbbbb'         # Not used with sqlite3.
DATABASE_HOST = ''             # Set to empty string for localhost. Not used with sqlite3.
DATABASE_PORT = ''             # Set to empty string for default. Not used with sqlite3.

# Local time zone for this installation. Choices can be found here:
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_zones_by_name
# although not all choices may be available on all operating systems.
# If running in a Windows environment this must be set to the same as your
# system time zone.
TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/London'

# Language code for this installation. All choices can be found here:
# http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode/language-identifiers.html
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-GB'

SITE_ID = 1

# If you set this to False, Django will make some optimizations so as not
# to load the internationalization machinery.
USE_I18N = True

# Absolute path to the directory that holds media.
# Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/"
MEDIA_ROOT = '/home/django/media/'

# URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash if there is a path component (optional in other cases).
# Examples: "http://media.lawrence.com", "http://example.com/media/"
MEDIA_URL = 'http://mofin.mywebsite.co.uk/media/'

# URL prefix for admin media -- CSS, JavaScript and images. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://foo.com/media/", "/media/".
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/admin_media/'

# Make this unique, and don't share it with anybody.
SECRET_KEY = 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'

# List of callables that know how to import templates from various sources.
TEMPLATE_LOADERS = (
    'django.template.loaders.filesystem.load_template_source',
    'django.template.loaders.app_directories.load_template_source',
#     'django.template.loaders.eggs.load_template_source',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
)

ROOT_URLCONF = 'mofin.urls'

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
    # Put strings here, like "/home/html/django_templates" or "C:/www/django/templates".
    # Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
    # Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
)

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'mofin.store'
)

user_263175 · Answer

Hey, just adding an additional answer to this problem. I had the exact same issue, but it wasn't file permissions. I was appending "path/to/project", but not also appending "path/to". Linked is mod_wsgi's Django integration explanation that showed me the answer.

user_2981926 · Answer

I had a similar problem, solved it with the following snippet in my python:

ALLDIRS = ['/var/www/MarkerDB/']

import sys 
import site 

# Remember original sys.path.
prev_sys_path = list(sys.path) 

# Add each new site-packages directory.
for directory in ALLDIRS:
  site.addsitedir(directory)

# Reorder sys.path so new directories at the front.
new_sys_path = [] 
for item in list(sys.path): 
    if item not in prev_sys_path: 
        new_sys_path.append(item) 
        sys.path.remove(item) 
sys.path[:0] = new_sys_pat

Source: http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/VirtualEnvironments#Application_Environments

How do I stop getting ImportError: Could not import settings 'mofin.settings' when using django with wsgi?

15 Answers