How to drop all tables from the database with manage.py CLI in Django?

Question

How can I drop all tables from a database using manage.py and command line? Is there any way to do that executing manage.py with appropriate parameters so I can execute it f

Answer 1

If you're using the South package to handle database migrations (highly recommended), then you could just use the ./manage.py migrate appname zero command.

Otherwise, I'd recommend the ./manage.py dbshell command, piping in SQL commands on standard input.

Answer 2

use "python manage.py sqlflush" command in windows 10 for others type manage.py

Answer 3

Here's an example Makefile to do some nice things with multiple settings files:

test:
    python manage.py test --settings=my_project.test

db_drop:
    echo 'DROP DATABASE my_project_development;' | ./manage.py dbshell
    echo 'DROP DATABASE my_project_test;' | ./manage.py dbshell

db_create:
    echo 'CREATE DATABASE my_project_development;' | ./manage.py dbshell
    echo 'CREATE DATABASE my_project_test;' | ./manage.py dbshell

db_migrate:
    python manage.py migrate --settings=my_project.base
    python manage.py migrate --settings=my_project.test

db_reset: db_drop db_create db_migrate

.PHONY: test db_drop db_create db_migrate db_reset

Then you can do things like: $ make db_reset

Answer 4

Here's a south migration version of @peter-g's answer. I often fiddle with raw sql, so this comes in handy as 0001_initial.py for any befuddled apps. It will only work on DBs that support SHOW TABLES (like mysql). Substitute something like SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_schema = 'public'; if you use PostgreSQL. Also, I often do this exact same thing for both the forwards and backwards migrations.

from south.db import db
from south.v2 import SchemaMigration
from django.db.utils import DatabaseError
from os import path
from logging import getLogger
logger = getLogger(__name__)


class Migration(SchemaMigration):

    def forwards(self, orm):

        app_name = path.basename(path.split(path.split(path.abspath(__file__))[0])[0])
        table_tuples = db.execute(r"SHOW TABLES;")

        for tt in table_tuples:
            table = tt[0]
            if not table.startswith(app_name + '_'):
                continue
            try:
                logger.warn('Deleting db table %s ...' % table)
                db.delete_table(table)
            except DatabaseError:
                from traceback import format_exc
                logger.error("Error running %s: \n %s" % (repr(self.forwards), format_exc()))

Coworker/cocoders would kill me if they knew I did this, though.

Answer 5

As far as I know there is no management command to drop all tables. If you don't mind hacking Python you can write your own custom command to do that. You may find the sqlclear option interesting. Documentation says that ./manage.py sqlclear Prints the DROP TABLE SQL statements for the given app name(s).

Update: Shamelessly appropriating @Mike DeSimone's comment below this answer to give a complete answer.

./manage.py sqlclear | ./manage.py dbshell

As of django 1.9 it's now ./manage.py sqlflush

Answer 6

The command ./manage.py sqlclear or ./manage.py sqlflush seems to clear the table and not delete them, however if you want to delete the complete database try this : manage.py flush.

Warning: this will delete your database completely and you will lose all your data, so if that not important go ahead and try it.