Override settings.py for testing

Question

I have my project settings in settings.py file. There are database names, user names, host names etc. defined there. In project files I do import settings and then use the constants where needed like settings.HOST. For unit testing I would like to use different settings. How should I override the settings? I am not using django.

Answer 1

You could create a new file - say local_settings.py in which you override the specific settings for you debugging and testing purposes.

Then you add this block at the end of your settings.py

# Override these settings with local settings if such a file exists 
try:
     from local_settings import * 
except ImportError as e:
     pass

You should add local_settings.py to your .gitignore file to exclude this file from version control (if you are using git).

This is the standard way Django does this by the way.

Answer 2

I suppose the easiest way would be to move your settings.py to another folder for safekeeping and then make a new one, and edit that for debugging.