Django generate-secret-key application

Simple Django application that adds a new command:

python manage.py generate_secret_key [--replace] [secretkey.txt]

This will generate a new file secretkey.txt containing a random Django secret key. In your production settings file, replace the hardcoded key by:

# Use a separate file for the secret key
with open('/path/to/the/secretkey.txt') as f:
    SECRET_KEY = f.read().strip()

You can avoid hardcoding the path of the key by using:

import os
BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))

# Use a separate file for the secret key
with open(os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'secretkey.txt')) as f:
    SECRET_KEY = f.read().strip()

Install

You can install this package from PyPi:

pip install django-generate-secret-key

Then you will need to add it to the Django's INSTALLED_APPS setting:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
   ...
   'django_generate_secret_key',
   ...
)

You can now use

python manage.py generate_secret_key

Run this command once in your local environment, and every time you deploy your app (on the remote host), to make sure the file exists.