collectstatic command is not available in Django 1.6a1

Question

I have installed django in my virtualenv like this:

git clone git://github.com/django/django.git django-trunk
pip install -e django-trunk/

in my settings file have this:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.admindocs',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'django.contrib.sites',
    'django.contrib.flatpages',
    'south',
    'djcelery',
    'gunicorn',
    'sorl.thumbnail',
    'template_utils',
    'compressor',
    'tagging',
    'ckeditor',
    'mptt',
)


STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
    'compressor.finders.CompressorFinder',
)

When I try to do

python manage.py collectstatic

I get this error:

Unknown command: 'collectstatic'

If I do

python manage.py --version

I get

1.6a1

Why isn't collectstatic available?

Edit:

When I run

python manage.py --help

I get this:

Usage: manage.py subcommand [options] [args]

Options:
  -v VERBOSITY, --verbosity=VERBOSITY
                        Verbosity level; 0=minimal output, 1=normal output,
                        2=verbose output, 3=very verbose output
  --settings=SETTINGS   The Python path to a settings module, e.g.
                        "myproject.settings.main". If this isn't provided, the
                        DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be
                        used.
  --pythonpath=PYTHONPATH
                        A directory to add to the Python path, e.g.
                        "/home/djangoprojects/myproject".
  --traceback           Raise on exception
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Type 'manage.py help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.

Available subcommands:

[django]
    check
    cleanup
    compilemessages
    createcachetable
    dbshell
    diffsettings
    dumpdata
    flush
    inspectdb
    loaddata
    makemessages
    runfcgi
    runserver
    shell
    sql
    sqlall
    sqlclear
    sqlcustom
    sqldropindexes
    sqlflush
    sqlindexes
    sqlinitialdata
    sqlsequencereset
    startapp
    startproject
    syncdb
    test
    testserver
    validate

Answer 1

It's possible that Django is loading the wrong settings file. See this question for details: Django: Can't run custom commands

Try raising an exception at the top of your settings.py file; that will let you know if the file is even being loaded.