Django delete without calling signals

Question

I use signals for things that should always be done when an object is deleted, saved, updated, etc. However, there are times when I don't want to call my save signals, so I use

Model.objects.filter(id=instance.id).update(field=value)

instead of the instance's save method:

instance.save()

In the case of deleting objects, there are also times when I don't want to call the delete signals, but I haven't found a way to avoid calling them. Is there a way??

UPDATE:

I'm using django 1.6.2 and calling the delete method like this:

Model.objects.filter(id=instance.id).delete()

on the queryset still still calls the delete signal.

Answer 1

There is unsafe and undocumented way which probably can change between versions and also can lead to unexpected consequences which will be hard to debug.

This is a hack that probably you don't want to use but.... it's possible.

qs = Model.objects.filter(id=instance.id)
qs.order_by().select_related(None)._raw_delete(qs.db)

If you have any related objects to this one it will probably fail with database error because records will not be deleted automatically by Django

Answer 2

In the place where you don't want signals to be called, you have to disconnect them, run you code and then reconnect them again. You can take a look on how mute_signal decorator is implemented in FactoryBoy or just use (but it's basically intended for django tests)