KeyError: 'DB_NAME' when doing makemigrations in django

Question

I store all my secrets and database params in the dev.env file. I have 3 different settings files - base, dev and prod. There is an SQLite database in base, and I want to connect to Postgres in dev.

So I upload my secrets with the environment variable in my dev setting file like this:

from dotenv import load_dotenv
load_dotenv(os.environ.get('ENV_CONFIG', ''))

And I override my database settings in dev settings file:

    DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
        'NAME': os.environ['DB_NAME'],
        'USER': os.environ['DB_USER'],
        'PASSWORD': os.environ['DB_PASS'],
        'HOST': os.environ['DB_HOST'],
        'PORT': os.environ['DB_PORT'],
    }
}

But when I run makemigrations with dev settings file:

./manage.py makemigrations --settings=app.settings.dev

I get an error:

File "/Users/admin/Desktop/Programming/Python/UkranianFunds/src/app/settings/dev.py", line 35, in <module>
    'NAME': os.environ['DB_NAME'],
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/os.py", line 679, in __getitem__
    raise KeyError(key) from None
KeyError: 'DB_NAME'

I checked and my secret with the key DB_NAME clearly appears in the settings file - I printed it successfully. The name of the database is correct.

What are other reasons that cause that?

*Where* do you have that `load_dotenv` code…? – deceze Oct 28 '22 at 05:43 — deceze, Oct 28 '22 at 05:43
@deceze, in dev setting file – Rikki Tikki Tavi Oct 28 '22 at 05:46 — Rikki Tikki Tavi, Oct 28 '22 at 05:46

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 28 '22 at 09:23

0

Your loaded dev.env file does not contain 'DB_NAME' as a key.

answered Oct 28 '22 at 09:23

PLABON DATTA

167
1
4

No, it contains. – Rikki Tikki Tavi Oct 28 '22 at 10:41

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '22 at 07:23

I solved it by replacing os.environ['DB_NAME'] to os.environ.get('DB_NAME').

Weird situation for me because the problem occurred only when I did makemigrations.

After I migrated to Postgres, I tried to run the app with os.environ['DB_NAME'] and it worked fine.

So it seems that the KeyError is being raised only during makemigrations.

KeyError: 'DB_NAME' when doing makemigrations in django

2 Answers2