django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting CACHES, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment varia

Question

I've tried everything that I could find to fix this issue, and I'm starting to tear my hair out a little. I'm getting this error:

django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting CACHES, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

My scripts run fine when I do:

python3 ./manage.py runserver

However, whenever I try to run tests, I get the above error... I use a VirtualEnv, that inherits nothing globally, everything is installed (with the correct version), and within my manage.py I have set:

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<appname>.settings")

I'm using PyCharm Proffesional to develop, and I've tried running the tests in both the IDE, and in the shell. Within the shell I'm using :

python3 manage.py test     

The shell is finding no tests. The test is basic, and I'm not really all that bothered about the content of it currently as it's the environment I'm struggling with. UPDATE: I have solved the issue with the shell. Tests must be defined by:

def test_<name>():

However this hasn't solved my issue with PyCharm. I have also called:

settings.configure()

Which told me that it was already configured.
Please note that I am not using any database with Django, and I have commented the appropriate things out of the settings.

The full error is:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/root/kiloenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 38, in _setup
    settings_module = os.environ[ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE]
  File "/usr/lib/python3.4/os.py", line 631, in __getitem__
    raise KeyError(key) from None
KeyError: 'DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/home/<username>/Documents/<dirname>/<appname>/tests.py", line 1, in <module>
        from django.test.utils import setup_test_environment
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/test/__init__.py", line 5, in <module>
        from django.test.client import Client, RequestFactory
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/test/client.py", line 11, in <module>
        from django.contrib.auth import authenticate, login, logout, get_user_model
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/__init__.py", line 6, in <module>
        from django.middleware.csrf import rotate_token
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/middleware/csrf.py", line 14, in <module>
        from django.utils.cache import patch_vary_headers
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/cache.py", line 26, in <module>
        from django.core.cache import get_cache
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/cache/__init__.py", line 69, in <module>
        if DEFAULT_CACHE_ALIAS not in settings.CACHES:
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 54, in __getattr__
        self._setup(name)
      File "/root/virtualenv/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 47, in _setup
        % (desc, ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE))
    django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: Requested setting CACHES, but settings are not configured. You must either define the environment variable DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE or call settings.configure() before accessing settings.

I have ran PyCharm under sudo to ensure that the issue wasn't permissions as I'm storing the env under root.

EDIT: I've just discovered that my tests which do not use Django are running fine, but Pycharm is still throwing several failures. These failures aren't the individual tests, they're just the error which I have mentioned here (there's 341 tests that aren't Django related). I only have one test which uses Django, which will not get past initializing and throwing the mentioned error.

Hope I've been explanitory

Solution 1

If you are using PyCharm Pro, you can either test your app by action 'Run Django Console...'. After you click 'test', it will prompt you for the app you want to test.

or

Create a Django test in Run/Debug configuration.

Solution 2

Use this

import os

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

instead of

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<appname>.settings")

Solution 3

In your python script, you are trying to access Django models before setting the environment try it in this order :

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "<appname>.`settings`")
from <appname>.models import Class1, Class2,...

Solution 4

since, I don't want to add this in every file, I created a file called usercustomize.py and added this content:

import os
os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE']='foosite.settings'

The file path in my case:

src/foosite/usercustomize.py

I installed foosite with "pip install -e". I am unsure if this works for normal installs.

Solution 5

In my case I needed to use

python3 manage.py check --deploy

instead of

django-admin check --deploy

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