django-command-center

Run Django management commands from the admin - without SSH.

• Every command, found automatically. Your project's commands and Django's own appear by themselves; you decide which ones, in settings or in the command's code.
• Runs in the background, in its own process. A command that crashes, leaks memory or hangs cannot take your worker down.
• Live output. Watch it as it prints; download the full log afterwards.
• Cancel and time limits that work. The process is stopped, children and all.
• History. Who ran what, with which arguments, when, for how long, and how it ended.
• Permissions. Running and cancelling are model permissions; a command can require one more of its own.

Background runs go through django.tasks (Django 6.0+) or the django-tasks backport, or are queued for manage.py command_center_worker.

Install

pip install django-command-center            # Django 6.0+
pip install "django-command-center[tasks]"   # Django 5.2, with background runs

INSTALLED_APPS = [..., "command_center"]

python manage.py migrate command_center

Then open Command center > Command runs > Run a command in the admin.

Choose the commands

Every installed command is offered except the defaults in EXCLUDE: servers, shells, interactive commands, code generators, and flush.

from command_center.conf import DEFAULT_EXCLUDE

COMMAND_CENTER = {
    # Only these (fnmatch patterns). None offers everything not excluded.
    "INCLUDE": None,
    # Never offered - extend the defaults rather than replace them.
    "EXCLUDE": [*DEFAULT_EXCLUDE, "send_newsletter"],
    # Extra groups on the run page, besides one per app.
    "TAGS": {"Reports": ["check", "showmigrations", "report_*"]},
    # Per command. Naming an excluded command here offers it anyway.
    "COMMANDS": {
        "migrate": {"confirm": "Applies migrations to this database.", "timeout": 600},
        "clearsessions": {"tags": ["Maintenance"]},
        "rebuild_index": {"permission": "search.change_index", "timeout": 7200},
    },
}

Or describe a command where it is written; settings override it:

class Command(BaseCommand):
    command_center = {"tags": ["Reports"], "timeout": 120}

    # or keep it out of the admin entirely:
    # command_center = False

Settings

Permissions

• command_center.add_commandrun - run commands
• command_center.cancel_commandrun - cancel runs
• command_center.view_commandrun - see the history and logs
• plus any permission a command declares

How a command runs

Each run starts python -m django <command> <arguments> with the same settings module and import path as the worker. Its standard input is closed: a command that asks a question fails at once instead of waiting forever, so pass --no-input where a command supports it. Output is read line by line; every HEARTBEAT_SECONDS the run's page gets the latest of it, and a cancel or an expired time limit stops the process group with SIGTERM, then SIGKILL. A run whose worker dies is marked lost after LOST_AFTER_SECONDS.

Without a task framework

COMMAND_CENTER = {"RUNNER": "worker"}

python manage.py command_center_worker          # keeps polling
python manage.py command_center_worker --once   # from cron

Housekeeping

python manage.py command_center_prune   # deletes runs older than RETENTION_DAYS

Development

python runtests.py

License

BSD-3-Clause.