Does core Django supports migration without django-south or similar app?

Question

Does Django consists of a migration concept without south app?

If not why didn\'t they include it in Django 1.4? (Since, it\'s a must have).

Answer 1

No, it doesn't. South is considered as the 'de facto' standard for database migration in Django. Further reading can be found in the Django development wiki.

From the version 1.2 release notes:

Contrib-01 (Add South to contrib) - general consensus - including that of South's lead developer - is that South isn't yet ready to be a bonafide part of Django.

This, most probably, is still valid. South has its limitations, it still has gaps that could be considered as flaws when being a django.contrib module.

That said, I want to add: south still is extremely useful.

Answer 2

Following a successful kickstarter campaign, schema migrations will be added to the Django core starting with version 1.7

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/releases/1.7/#schema-migrations

Answer 3

South is not the only migration app that works with Django. See http://djangopackages.com/grids/g/database-migration/ for some current options. Simon Willison also co-created Dmigrations but it's old and hasn't had a commit for a few years.

South is generally accepted to be the best at the moment, though I've not tried NashVegas (partly because South is so good, I've not needed to)