Using the manage.py Utility

Another file that is automatically installed in each project you create is the manage.py utility. The manage.py utility is actually a wrapper to an application called django-admin.py that needs to be located somewhere in the PYTHONPATH.

The manage.py utility is used to perform all kinds of development, administration, and testing tasks. The best way to describe the manage.py utility is to list some of the commands you can implement:

• startproject creates a new Django project. A directory is created for the project that includes the initial files.

• startapp creates a new application in a Django project. A directory is created for the application that includes the initial files.

• syncdb synchronizes data from project models to the SQL database.

• runserver starts the development server.

• shell launches a Python interpreter shell that has access to the Django project, including the database.

• dbshell launches an SQL command-line client for the database.

Usually the manage.py utility should be used from the root of your Django project. We will discuss using the manage.py utility for various tasks throughout this book. You can find more information about the manage.py utility at http://www.djangoproject.com/documentation/django-admin.