Document how to override management commands

[stephanm]

Hi,

I have one question where I didn't find the answer in the docs.

If I have two django apps:

• app1
• app2

and both apps have lets say a custom management command called:

• importdata

Actually I do the following:

In every app I prepend the custom command name with the app name,
so in my case the custom commands would be named:

• app1_importdata (for app1)
• app2_importdata (for app2)

But what is the official "correct" way?

Does there exist some sort of namespace like:

• app1.importdata
• app2.importdata

or it is planned (in Django 2.x)?

If I have two external apps not programmed by myself
and both have one same-named management command...
how do I solve the problem?

[Tim Graham]

You need to use unique command names -- there's no notion of namespacing, though this was suggested in #27189, I don't think there was an follow up on that idea.

I'll classify this as a documentation ticket for explaining how to override management commands. There's a brief discussion ​on StackOverflow which could be a useful starting point in writing some docs.

[stephanm]

OK, so I did the right thing in my projects.

But one question remains:

What should I do if some day I need a django app
from pypi which has the same management commands?
(... or more than one django app from pypi where
all of them have management command names collisions)

[Tim Graham]

You could alias the overridden command by creating a new management command in your project and importing the overridden command there so that it's accessible under a different name.

[Joe Krzystan]

I'll update the documentation to detail current behavior.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In 48d92fe:

Fixed #28367 -- Doc'd how to override management commands.

[Tim Graham <timograham@…>]

In f9db06cf:

[1.11.x] Fixed #28367 -- Doc'd how to override management commands.

Backport of 48d92fea672928b4571ddaab03667e74671391c0 from master