How to reload modules in django shell?

Question

I am working with Django and use Django shell all the time. The annoying part is that while the Django server reloads on code changes, the shell does not, so every time I ma

Answer 1

Use shell_plus with an ipython config. This will enable autoreload before shell_plus automatically imports anything.

pip install django-extensions
pip install ipython
ipython profile create

Edit your ipython profile (~/.ipython/profile_default/ipython_config.py):

c.InteractiveShellApp.exec_lines = ['%autoreload 2']
c.InteractiveShellApp.extensions = ['autoreload']

Open a shell - note that you do not need to include --ipython:

python manage.py shell_plus

Now anything defined in SHELL_PLUS_PRE_IMPORTS or SHELL_PLUS_POST_IMPORTS (docs) will autoreload!

Note that if your shell is at a debugger (ex pdb.set_trace()) when you save a file it can interfere with the reload.

Answer 2

Using a combination of 2 answers for this I came up with a simple one line approach.

You can run the django shell with -c which will run the commands you pass however it quits immediately after the code is run.

The trick is to setup what you need, run code.interact(local=locals()) and then re-start the shell from within the code you pass. Like this:

python manage.py shell -c 'import uuid;test="mytestvar";import code;code.interact(local=locals())'

For me I just wanted the rich library's inspect method. Only a few lines:

python manage.py shell -c 'import code;from rich import pretty;pretty.install();from rich import inspect;code.interact(local=locals())'

Finally the cherry on top is an alias

alias djshell='python manage.py shell -c "import code;from rich import pretty;pretty.install();from rich import inspect;code.interact(local=locals())"'

Now if I startup my shell and say, want to inspect the form class I get this beautiful output:

Answer 3

My solution to it is I write the code and save to a file and then use:

python manage.py shell < test.py

So I can make the change, save and run that command again till I fix whatever I'm trying to fix.

Answer 4

Reload() doesn't work in Django shell without some tricks. You can check this thread na and my answer specifically:

How do you reload a Django model module using the interactive interpreter via "manage.py shell"?

Answer 5

Instead of running commands from the Django shell, you can set up a management command like so and rerun that each time.

Answer 6

look at the manage.py shell_plus command provided by the django-extensions project. It will load all your model files on shell startup. and autoreload your any modify but do not need exit, you can direct call there