Django - Authentication using REMOTE_USER - How to test in dev server?

Question

I want to use django.contrib.auth.middleware.RemoteUserMiddleware for authentication as outlined here:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/auth-remote-user/

Question is, how can I test this in a dev environment where there is no Apache? i.e. can I set REMOTE_USER somehow in local settings?

EDIT (adding settings)

AUTHENTICATION_BACKENDS = (
'django.contrib.auth.backends.RemoteUserBackend',
)

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

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    ...
)

Then I have this in my local_Settings:

os.environ['REMOTE_USER'] = "mmatyas"

I also tried the 'HTTP_REMOTE_USER' variant. Thanks!

Answer 1

The variable has to be set in the environment in which you start the dev server. usually it's just:

REMOTE_USER=myuser ./manage.py runserver