Session database table cleanup

Question

Does this table need to be purged or is it taken care of automatically by Django?

score 62 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:44

62

Django does NOT provide automatic purging. There is however a handy command available to help you do it manually: Django docs: Clearing the session store

python manage.py clearsessions

edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:44

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Sep 03 '11 at 22:26

Abid A

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If you use Django 1.5 or lower, you can use python manage.py cleanup – Josir Jun 10 '15 at 00:16
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I was in my psql and found out that `TRUNCATE django_session;` also works. – Alper Oct 21 '17 at 20:30
I would check beforehand the sessions before deleting: in mysql `select*from django_session;` or to see how many there are `select count (*)from django_session;` – Timo Mar 15 '18 at 08:59
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@Alper be careful with truncation of the table, this will effectively clear the session for every user of your system, not just the ones that are expired which is what **clearsessions** does. Sometimes this is fine, but my bet would be that you don't want to wipe valid session data for every single person... say a person who logged in 5 minutes ago. – ViaTech Oct 17 '18 at 19:49
@ViaTech Oh, in this case (for packing an old website) this was a perfectly fine outcome. – Alper Oct 18 '18 at 08:06

score 22 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:43

22

Django 1.6 or Above
```
python manage.py clearsessions
```
Django 1.5 or lower
```
python manage.py cleanup
```

From Django Shell

from django.contrib.sessions.models import Session
Session.objects.all().delete()

django-session-cleanup cornJob

edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:43

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Oct 07 '17 at 05:30

Roshan Bagdiya

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Doesn't the third delete all session rows while `clearsessions` clear only expired sessions? – harryghgim May 12 '22 at 01:29
This helped me in accessing the sessions table via django model. +1 – Souvik Ray Jul 20 '23 at 18:53

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:43

2

On my development server, I prefer a database command over python manage.py clearsessions because you delete all sessions, not just the expired ones (here: MySQL). To login into your database and do:

truncate table django_session;

BTW, session is not a database, but a table (django_session) and an app (django.contrib.sessions).

edited Aug 31 '21 at 10:43

Sabito stands with Ukraine

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answered Mar 15 '18 at 09:50

Timo

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According to my test it is wrong that clearsessions deletes all sessions. At Django 2.2.7 I can confirm that current sessions stay in the table. – Greg Holst Apr 10 '20 at 09:55
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truncate will remove also active sessions – cwhisperer Jan 22 '21 at 07:01

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 23 '21 at 06:22

I know this post is old but I tried this command/attribute and it worked for me.

In the 'base.html' file, I inserted: {{ request.session.clear_expired }}

This clears expired records from the django_session table when the user clicks on any link in the template after the session expires.

Even so, it is necessary to create a routine to clear expired records over a period longer than one day. This is necessary to clear logs when user closes browser with open sessions.

I used Django 3.2.4

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 11 '22 at 15:13

0

Other method:

I'm using Django 3.2 and i recommend using the django-auto-logout package.

It allows active time and idle time session control.

In the template you can use variables together with Javascript.

answered Jan 11 '22 at 15:13

CleberAP

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While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - [From Review](/review/late-answers/30792604) – Simas Joneliunas Jan 14 '22 at 15:48

Session database table cleanup

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