django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty

Question

I created a new project in django and pasted some files from another project. Whenever I try to run the server, I get the following error message:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
        execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
      File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 385, in execute_from_command_line
        utility.execute()
      .
      .
      .
            File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 115, in __init__
        raise ImproperlyConfigured("The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.")
    django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty.

Here's my settings.py

""" Django settings for dbe project.  """

# Build paths inside the project like this: os.path.join(BASE_DIR, ...)
import os
from os.path import join as pjoin
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))


# Quick-start development settings - unsuitable for production
# See https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/howto/deployment/checklist/


# SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
DEBUG = True
TEMPLATE_DEBUG = True
ALLOWED_HOSTS = []

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'shared',
    'issues',
    'blog',
    'bombquiz',
    'forum',
    'portfolio',
    'questionnaire',
)

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = (
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
)

TEMPLATE_DIRS = (
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "issues"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "blog"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "bombquiz"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "forum"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "portfolio"),
     os.path.join(BASE_DIR, "templates", "questionnaire"),
     )

ROOT_URLCONF = 'dbe.urls'

WSGI_APPLICATION = 'dbe.wsgi.application'


# Database
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/ref/settings/#databases

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db.sqlite3'),
    }
}

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en-us'
TIME_ZONE = 'UTC'
USE_I18N = True
USE_L10N = True
USE_TZ = True

# Static files (CSS, JavaScript, Images)
# https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/howto/static-files/

MEDIA_URL = '/media/'
MEDIA_ROOT = pjoin(BASE_DIR, "media")
STATIC_URL = '/static/'
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
                    pjoin(BASE_DIR, "static"),
                    )

try:
    from local_settings import *
except:
    pass

Here's manage.py as well

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys

if __name__ == "__main__":
    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "dbe.settings")

    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line

    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

Any help? Thanks!

Looks like your DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is not being loaded correctly. Can you confirm that your settings.py is actually dbe/settings.py? — bvanvugt, Apr 05 '15 at 07:24
Possible duplicate of [Django: ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET\_KEY setting must not be empty](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19128540/django-improperlyconfigured-the-secret-key-setting-must-not-be-empty) — physicalattraction, Jul 07 '17 at 13:37

rnevius · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-05T07:59:01.230

31

Just like the error says, you have no SECRET_KEY defined. You need to add one to your settings.py.

Django will refuse to start if SECRET_KEY is not set.

You can read more about this setting in the docs.

The SECRET_KEY can be just about anything...but if you want to use Django to generate one, you can do the following from the python shell:

>>> from django.utils.crypto import get_random_string
>>> chars = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789!@#$%^&*(-_=+)'
>>> SECRET_KEY = get_random_string(50, chars)
>>> print SECRET_KEY

Copy the SECRET_KEY to your settings file.

edited Apr 05 '15 at 07:59

answered Apr 05 '15 at 07:28

rnevius

26,578
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2

Just to make sure: The `SECRET_KEY` has to be random and secret. If you use the string posted above, you will **completely** compromise the security of Django. – Klaus D. Apr 05 '15 at 07:44
6

@KlausD. I didn't post a secret key. I posted a way to generate a secure secret key. This is exactly how Django creates secret keys when you run `startproject` – rnevius Apr 05 '15 at 07:59
1

You are right. I did not have my first coffee before reading it. :-| On the other hand if someone uses that in the settings.py he will have problems with that code when there are multiple instances (or processes) of the Django installation running. Which is possible in most production environments. Just to point it out. There are always people who might try that. ;-) – Klaus D. Apr 05 '15 at 08:23
3

Now you can use `from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key get_random_secret_key()` – Davide Pizzolato Jul 12 '19 at 11:48

score 7 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 29 '18 at 18:54

SECRET_KEY variable in settings.py should be kept secret

You can place the string secret key generated with the get_random_stringfunction above (as said @rnevius ) in settings.py but use a function that get the variable.

This means, that for security reasons, it is better to hide the content of SECRET_KEY variable.

You can define an environment variable as follow:

In your $HOME/.bashrc or $HOME/.zshrc or /etc/bashrc or /etc/bash.bashrc according to your unix operating system and terminal manager that you use:

export SECRET_KEY='value_of_the_secret_key_generated_by_get_random_string_function'

you can look something like this:

export SECRET_KEY='lmrffsgfhrilklg-za7#57vi!zr)ps8)2anyona25###dl)s-#s=7=vn_'

And in the settings.py you can add this:

import os
from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured

def get_env_variable(var_name):
    try:
        return os.environ[var_name]
    except KeyError:
        error_msg = "Set the %s environment variable" % var_name
        raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)

SECRET_KEY = get_env_variable('SECRET_KEY')

The function get_env_variable tries to get the variable var_name from the environment, and if it doesn’t find it, it raises an ImproperlyConfigured error. Using it in this way, when you try to run your app and the SECRET_KEY variable is not found, you will be able to see a message indicating why our project fails.

Also you can protect the secret content variables of the project in this way.

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: The SECRET_KEY setting must not be empty

2 Answers2

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