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django-read-only
================
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Disable Django database writes.
Requirements
------------
Python 3.7 to 3.11 supported.
Django 3.2 to 4.2 supported.
----
**Want to work smarter and faster?**
Check out my book `Boost Your Django DX <https://adamchainz.gumroad.com/l/byddx>`__ which covers django-read-only, IPython, and many other tools.
----
Installation
------------
Install with **pip**:
.. code-block:: sh
python -m pip install django-read-only
Then add to your installed apps:
.. code-block:: python
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...,
"django_read_only",
...,
]
Usage
-----
In your settings file, set ``DJANGO_READ_ONLY`` to ``True`` and all data modification queries will cause an exception:
.. code-block:: console
$ DJANGO_READ_ONLY=1 python manage.py shell
...
>>> User.objects.create_user(username="hacker", password="hunter2")
...
DjangoReadOnlyError(...)
For convenience, you can also control this with the ``DJANGO_READ_ONLY`` environment variable, which will count as ``True`` if set to anything but the empty string.
The setting takes precedence over the environment variable.
During a session with ``DJANGO_READ_ONLY`` set on, you can re-enable writes by calling ``enable_writes()``:
.. code-block:: pycon
>>> import django_read_only
>>> django_read_only.enable_writes()
Writes can be disabled with ``disable_writes()``:
.. code-block:: pycon
>>> django_read_only.disable_writes()
To temporarily allow writes, use the ``temp_writes()`` context manager / decorator:
.. code-block:: pycon
>>> with django_read_only.temp_writes():
... User.objects.create_user(...)
...
Note that writes being enabled/disabled is global state, affecting all threads and asynchronous coroutines.
Recommended Setup
-----------------
Set read-only mode on in your production environment, and maybe staging, during interactive sessions.
This can be done by setting the ``DJANGO_READ_ONLY`` environment variable in the shell profile file (``bashrc``, ``zshrc``, etc.) of the system’s user account.
This way developers performing exploratory queries can’t accidentally make changes, but writes will remain enabled for non-shell processes like your WSGI server.
With this setup, developers can also run management commands with writes enabled by setting the environment variable before the command:
.. code-block:: console
$ DJANGO_READ_ONLY= python manage.py clearsessions
Some deployment platforms don’t allow you to customize your shell profile files.
In this case, you will need to find a way to detect shell mode from within your settings file.
For example, on Heroku there’s the ``DYNO`` environment variable (`docs <https://devcenter.heroku.com/articles/dynos#local-environment-variables>`__) to identify the current virtual machine.
It starts with “run.” for interactive sessions.
You can use this to enable read-only mode in your settings file like so:
.. code-block:: python
if os.environ.get("DYNO", "").startswith("run."):
DJANGO_READ_ONLY = bool(os.environ.get("DJANGO_READ_ONLY", "1"))
else:
DJANGO_READ_ONLY = False
IPython Extension
-----------------
django-read-only also works as an IPython extension for quick access to enable/disable read-only mode.
Load it with:
.. code-block:: ipython
In [1]: %load_ext django_read_only
You can have the extension always load by setting it up to your `IPython configuration file <https://ipython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/config/intro.html>`__:
.. code-block:: python
c.InteractiveShellApp.extensions.append("django_read_only")
When loaded, use the ``%read_only`` line magic to disable or enable read-only mode:
.. code-block:: ipython
In [2]: %read_only off
Write queries enabled.
In [3]: %read_only on
Write queries disabled.
This reduces the amount of typing needed to disable read-only mode.
How it Works
------------
The most accurate way to prevent writes is to connect as a separate database user with only read permission.
However, this has limitations - Django doesn’t support modifying the ``DATABASES`` setting live, so sessions would not be able to temporarily allow writes.
Instead, django-read-only uses `always installed database instrumentation <https://adamj.eu/tech/2020/07/23/how-to-make-always-installed-django-database-instrumentation/>`__ to inspect executed queries and only allow those which look like reads.
It uses a “fail closed” philosophy, so anything unknown will fail, which should be fairly reasonable.
Because django-read-only uses Django database instrumentation, it cannot block queries running through the underlying database connection (accesses through ``django.db.connection.connection``), and it cannot filter operations within stored procedures (which use ``connection.callproc()``).
These are very rare in practice though, so django-read-only’s method works well for most projects.