# RunScript

synopsis: | Runs a script in the django context.

## Introduction

The runscript command lets you run an arbritrary set of python commands within the django context. It offers the same usability and functionality as running a set of commands in shell accessed by:

    $ python manage.py shell

## Getting Started

This example assumes you have followed the tutorial for Django 1.8+, and created a polls app containing a `Question` model. We will create a script that deletes all of the questions from the database.

To get started create a scripts directory in your project root, next to manage.py:

    $ mkdir scripts
    $ touch scripts/__init__.py

Note: The __init__.py file is necessary so that the folder is picked up as a python package.

Next, create a python file with the name of the script you want to run within the scripts directory:

    $ touch scripts/delete_all_questions.py

This file must implement a run() function. This is what gets called when you run the script. You can import any models or other parts of your django project to use in these scripts.

For example:

    # scripts/delete_all_questions.py

    from polls.models import Question

    def run():
        # Fetch all questions
        questions = Question.objects.all()
        # Delete questions
        questions.delete()

Note: You can put a script inside a scripts folder in any of your apps too.

## Usage

To run any script you use the command runscript with the name of the script that you want to run.

For example:

    $ python manage.py runscript delete_all_questions

Note: The command first checks for scripts in your apps i.e. app_name/scripts folder and runs them before checking for and running scripts in the project_root/scripts folder. You can have multiple scripts with the same name and they will all be run sequentially.

## Passing arguments

You can pass arguments from the command line to your script by passing a space separated list of values with `--script-args`. For example:

    $ python manage.py runscript delete_all_questions --script-args staleonly

The list of argument values gets passed as arguments to your run() function. For example:

    # scripts/delete_all_questions.py
    from datetime import timedelta

    from django.utils import timezone

    from polls.models import Question

    def run(*args):
        # Get all questions
        questions = Question.objects.all()
        if 'staleonly' in args:
            # Only get questions more than 100 days old
            questions = questions.filter(pub_date__lt=timezone.now() - timedelta(days=100))
        # Delete questions
        questions.delete()

## Debugging

If an exception occurs you will not get a traceback by default. To get a traceback specify `--traceback`. For example:

    $ python manage.py runscript delete_all_questions --traceback