Quickstart

Install django-gunicorn:

pip install djgunicorn

Then add it to your INSTALLED_APPS. You will get a new command gunserver (please forgive my little pun-loving self). It runs like Django’s development server, but the HTTP handling is backed by Gunicorn.

Features

You can find available options with:

python manage.py help gunserver

Most options work as the built-in runserver command (in django.contrib.staticfiles). Exceptions:

• The verbosity and no-color settings are not passed to Gunicorn. They still affect messages emitted by the command itself, however.

• The nothreading option does not do anything.

Todo

• Unit tests and CI.

• Check how low we can support Django and Gunicorn versions.

• Support for additional Gunicorn configs that may be useful. SSL seems to be a common need.

• Is it possible to conditionally replace the runserver command? By installing an alternative app config, for example?

• We now use DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE to relay where the settings module is to the Gunicorn subprocess (and let Django loads it automatically). This causes problems if settings.configure() is called manually without a module, and will likely require some hacks to fix.

Interesting Links

• #21978 (Add optional gunicorn support to runserver)

• Fixed #21978 – Added optional gunicorn support to runserver. · django/django

• dj-static/dj_static.py · kennethreitz/dj-static

• SSL support for Django-admin runserver

• Settings — Gunicorn documentation

History