I would like to be able to set the location of appstore data much the same way you can using the dev_appserver.py with the manage.py commands. This would enable saving/using appstore data in locations other than /tmp on *nix systems where the data might be deleted at any point.

There are two possible solutions that could be implemented (preferrably both):

1. Enabling the --datastore_path and --history_path command line options in manage.py commands (runserver, shell etc.)
2. Enabling you to set the datastore path and history path via the settings module. This would require that the --settings command line option be enabled in order for this to be useful (which would require appengine_django to support changing the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable as overriding the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is all that the --settings option does).

This is a valid feature request, would you be willing to provide a patch?

Here's a patch for runserver. Please let me know if this is acceptable.

svn diff appengine_django/management/commands/runserver.py

Index: appengine_django/management/commands/runserver.py

--- appengine_django/management/commands/runserver.py (revision 100) +++ appengine_django/management/commands/runserver.py (working copy) @@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ # hack main so --help in dev_appserver_main works OK. sys.modules['main'] = dev_appserver_main # Set bind ip/port if specified. - if len(sys.argv) > 2: + if len(sys.argv) > 2 and not sys.argv[2].startswith("--"): addrport = sys.argv[2] try: addr, port = addrport.split(":") @@ -62,8 +62,18 @@

# Pass the application specific datastore location to the server. p = get_datastore_paths() - args.extend(["--datastore_path", p[0], "--history_path", p[1]]) + datastore_path = p[0] + history_path = p[1]

• if len(sys.argv) > 2:
• for arg in sys.argv[2:]:
• if arg.startswith("--datastore_path="):
• datastore_path=arg[arg.index("=")+1:]
• elif arg.startswith("--history_path="):
• history_path = arg[arg.index("=")+1:] +
• args.extend(["--datastore_path", datastore_path, "--history_path", history_path]) +

  Append the current working directory to the arguments.

  dev_appserver_main.main([progname] + args + [os.getcwdu()])

At first glance, it looks like this patch is only valid for the runserver.py command. But the feature request was for the ability to run this for other manage.py commands. I for one could really use this in 'shell' and 'startapp'.

I'll look at shell. Why does startapp need a datastore? I haven't had any issues using startapp without my datastore location. What issues are you running into?

You're right, apologies, that was a mistake. I can't see a need for startapp.

I checked my patch for shell in my fork here: http://code.google.com/p/dherbst-app-engine-django/source/detail?r=3fea1cacf20d15601abda7e0c6deee13497a6370

It may not be the most elegant way to do it, but it works for me.

usage: python manage.py shell --datastore_path=/abs/path/to/file.name