Django mod_wsgi: Exception occurred processing wsgi script

Question

I am deploying a django project and facing this error.

My project structure like below:

my_project
   my_project
      urls.py
      settings.py
      index.wsgi
      home
         views.py
         models.py
         .........

    requirements.txt
    manage.py

And my index.wsgi looks like below:

import os
import sys
import site

# Add the site-packages of the chosen virtualenv to work with
site.addsitedir('~/.virtualenvs/my_project/lib/python2.6/site-packages/')

# Add the app's directory to the PYTHONPATH
sys.path.append('/var/www/uni/my_project')
sys.path.append('/var/www/uni/my_project/home')

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

# Activate your virtual env
activate_env=os.path.expanduser("/home/user/.virtualenvs/my_project/bin/activate_this.py")
execfile(activate_env, dict(__file__=activate_env))

import django.core.handlers.wsgi
application = django.core.handlers.wsgi.WSGIHandler()

And in my virtualhost, the configuration is like below :

    <Directory /var/www/uni/my_project/templates/static>
        Allow from all
     </Directory>  
  WSGIScriptAlias / /var/uni/news/my_project/my_project/index.wsgi 

The apache error.log is shown as:

mod_wsgi (pid=27330): Exception occurred processing WSGI script '/var/www/uni/my_project/my_project/index.wsgi'.
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 219, in __call__
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]     self.load_middleware()
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 39, in load_middleware
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]     for middleware_path in settings.MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES:
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 184, in inner
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]     self._setup()
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 42, in _setup
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]     self._wrapped = Settings(settings_module)
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]   File "/usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/django/conf/__init__.py", line 95, in __init__
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip]     raise ImportError("Could not import settings '%s' (Is it on sys.path?): %s" % (self.SETTINGS_MODULE, e))
[Mon Jun 09 14:23:53 2014] [error] [client ip] ImportError: Could not import settings 'my_project.settings' (Is it on sys.path?): No module named my_project.settings

I went through the mod_wsgi and djnago docs. I know the project structure is not maintaining all the best practices. I will change it later but before that I need to go it live.

I tried by changing file permissions and all the changes that mentioned in same questions.

So, I am assuming I am doing something wrong.

Where is the mis configuration in the above files?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I have a checklist in these kind of scenarios:

1. Execute a script testing the index.wsgi interface directly with python, correct errors until the output shows that all is ok. (see update)

2. Check for permissions.

3. Check for apache configuration.

Update:

Executing python my_project/index.wsgi directly shows nothing in console, this approach works on fcgi configuration but no in wsgi, you will need a script that create a test server and show posible errors on console, the example script is this:

test_server.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

from wsgiref.util import setup_testing_defaults
from wsgiref.simple_server import make_server
from my_project.index import application #importing the project's index.wsgi file
httpd = make_server('', 8000, application)
httpd.serve_forever()

Steps:

• Run the test in console (even local)
• Go to the browser and navigate to this server:port
• see the logs in console

Recommendations:

1. Check for you __init__.py either in the project folder and the settings folder

2. Try to use relative paths in the settings and in the .wsgi file (see example)

3. Verify the uppercase/lowecase in your names (probably changing "MY_PROJECT.settings" for "my_project.settings"

example:

import os, sys, site

CURRENT_DIRECTORY = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
WORK_DIRECTORY = os.path.join(CURRENT_DIRECTORY, '..')

#Add the site-packages
site.addsitedir('/home/SERVER_USERNAME/.virtualenvs/histology_env/lib/python2.6/site-packages')

#activate_env=os.path.expanduser("~/.virtualenvs/histology_env/bin/activate_this.py")
#execfile(activate_env, dict(__file__=activate_env))

#adding the project to the python path
sys.path.append(WORK_DIRECTORY)
#adding the parent directory to the python path
sys.path.append(os.path.join(WORK_DIRECTORY, '..'))

os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "my_project.settings")

from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
application = get_wsgi_application()