Target WSGI script cannot be loaded as Python module

user_812267 0
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I am trying to deploy mod_wsgi with apache to run a django application but I am getting an error 500 internal server error The apache logs shows:

[Thu Jun 23 14:01:47 2011] [error] [client 152.78.95.64] mod_wsgi (pid=16142): Exception occurred processing WSGI script '/home/user/bms/apache/django.wsgi'.
[Thu Jun 23 14:01:47 2011] [error] [client 152.78.95.64] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Thu Jun 23 14:01:47 2011] [error] [client 152.78.95.64]   File "/home/user/bms/apache/django.wsgi", line 13, in <module>
[Thu Jun 23 14:01:47 2011] [error] [client 152.78.95.64]     import django.core.handlers.wsgi
[Thu Jun 23 14:01:47 2011] [error] [client 152.78.95.64] ImportError: No module named django.core.handlers.wsgi

My apache virtual host is as follows:

<VirtualHost *:80>

    DocumentRoot /home/user/bms

    <Directory /home/user/bms>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

WSGIDaemonProcess bms user=user group=user processes=2 threads=25 python-path=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages


    WSGIProcessGroup bms

    WSGIScriptAlias / /home/user/bms/apache/django.wsgi

</VirtualHost>

And the referenced wsgi file in my app directory with 0777 permissions:

import os
import sys

path = '/home/user/bms'
if path not in sys.path:
    sys.path.append(path)

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = 'bms.settings'

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

I heard that this may be because the apache user does not have the correct permissions. However I have no idea how to fix this. I also tried starting the deamon with the www-data user and this did not solve the issue.

EDIT:

I solved this by copying the virtual hosts file into the default one and then disabling the old one with a2dissite. I have no idea how I can do it "properly" and set it so apache goes to the virtual host I want it to though.

mod-wsgi wsgi apache django python
19 Answers

Appending path in wsgi.py is the direction, but instead of appending django appending path sys.path.append("/path/to/virtual/environment/lib/pythonX.X/site-packages") fixed my case.

This is for a django project using python2.7 on ubuntu 16.04.

user_66160210

I was getting this error. I'm using python 3 in a virtual environment found this in my apache logs

[Fri Dec 21 08:01:43.471561 2018] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 21786] AH00163: Apache/2.4.6 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) mod_wsgi/3.4 Python/2.7.5 configured -- resuming normal operations

I had installed wsgi using yum -y install mod_wsgi. This had installed mod_wsgi compiled for python 2. So I uninstalled it 

yum remove mod_wsgi

and installed mod_wsgi compiled for python 3 using

yum install python35u-mod_wsgi

It worked after that

user_19609020

I had the same error

Target WSGI script cannot be loaded as Python module

This was because the python path was not added in the apache.conf

Depending on the Apache and Ubuntu version you need to update the apache.conf or httpd.conf file with the pythonWSGIPath

In my case I need to edit the apache.conf

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Then add the following line at the end (Change the my_project to the project your project name)

WSGIPythonPath /var/www/my_project

And everything works with charm

user_97890970

I had similar issue eg apache log error "wsgi.py cannot be loaded as Python module."

It turned out I had to stop and then start apache instead of just restarting it.

user_8640970

I had the same problem and it got solved using 

sudo easy_install cx_Oracle

but remember to unistall cx_oracle before installing it using easy_install.

Command to uninstall: pip uninstall cx_oracle

user_103194460

The solution that finally worked for me, after trying many of these options unsuccessfully was simple, but elusive because I struggled to figure out what actual paths to use.

I created a mezzanine project, which is based on django, with the following commands. I list them here to make the paths explicit.

/var/www/mysite$ python3 -m venv ./venv
/var/www/mysite$ source ./venv/bin/activate
(venv) /var/www/mysite$ mezzanine-project mysite
(venv) /var/www/mysite$ cd mysite
(venv) /var/www/mysite/mysite$

Now, the path to the wsgi.py file is:

/var/www/mysite/mysite/mysite/wsgi.py

The directives that worked for this installation within my /etc/apache2/sites-available/mysite.conf file follow:

...<VirtualHost...>
    ...
    WSGIDaemonProcess mysite python-home=/var/www/mysite/venv python-path=/var/www/mysite/mysite
    WSGIProcessGroup mysite
    WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/mysite/mysite/mysite/wsgi.py process-group=accounting
    <Directory /var/www/mysite/mysite/mysite>
        <Files wsgi.py>
            Require all granted
        </Files>
    </Directory>
    ...
</VirtualHost>...

I tried numerous versions of python-home and python-path and got the OP's error repeatedly. Using the correct paths here should also accomplish the same things as @Dev's answer without having to add paths in the wsgi.py file (supplied by mezzanine, and no editing necessary in my case).

user_28467660

Sometimes when I get stuck on this I hard code a path to project in the wsgi file like:

import os
import sys


sys.path.append("/var/www/html/myproject")
from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "myproject.settings")

application = get_wsgi_application()
user_848850

I recommend trying to downgrade DJANGO to version 2.1.1.

user_75181760

Making sure my project's venv folder resides inside my project's root directory solved this problem for me.

user_91022720
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