Defining Django App Dependencies

Overview

There are two files that control app dependencies: setup.py and requirements.txt.

setup.py is a list of "abstract" dependencies without a specification as to their source.

requirements.txt is more specific about source and version number.

Packaging dependencies

In the project's root directory:

$ pip freeze > requirements.txt

Creating this file in Windows, even after changing the line endings to Unix-style line endings, caused an error when running pip install on the the production Linux server (in codec.py).

pip freeze will list everything installed via pip in an environment. Some of these thing will not be requirements of the web app, and should be removed from requirements.txt.

Do not include psycopg2. PostgreSQL gets installed outside this process.

Lines can be commented out in requirements.txt with the pound (#) character.

Installing dependences

$ pip install -r requirements.txt

Notes

See also

• install_requires vs Requirements files - Python Packaging User Guide