Error was: cannot import name utils

[kurvenschubser@…]

Traceback (most recent call last):
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 241, in __call__
     response = self.get_response(request)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 141, in get_response
     return self.handle_uncaught_exception(request, resolver, sys.exc_info())
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/core/handlers/base.py", line 165, in handle_uncaught_exception
     return debug.technical_500_response(request, *exc_info)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/views/debug.py", line 58, in technical_500_response
     html = reporter.get_traceback_html()
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/views/debug.py", line 137, in get_traceback_html
     return t.render(c)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/__init__.py", line 173, in render
     return self._render(context)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/__init__.py", line 167, in _render
     return self.nodelist.render(context)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/__init__.py", line 796, in render
     bits.append(self.render_node(node, context))
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/debug.py", line 72, in render_node
     result = node.render(context)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/debug.py", line 89, in render
     output = self.filter_expression.resolve(context)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/__init__.py", line 579, in resolve
     new_obj = func(obj, *arg_vals)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/template/defaultfilters.py", line 697, in date
     return format(value, arg)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/dateformat.py", line 281, in format
     return df.format(format_string)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/dateformat.py", line 30, in format
     pieces.append(force_unicode(getattr(self, piece)()))
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/dateformat.py", line 187, in r
     return self.format('D, j M Y H:i:s O')
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/dateformat.py", line 30, in format
     pieces.append(force_unicode(getattr(self, piece)()))
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/encoding.py", line 66, in force_unicode
     s = unicode(s)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 206, in __unicode_cast
     return self.__func(*self.__args, **self.__kw)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 55, in ugettext
     return real_ugettext(message)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/functional.py", line 55, in _curried
     return _curried_func(*(args+moreargs), **dict(kwargs, **morekwargs))
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 36, in delayed_loader
     return getattr(trans, real_name)(*args, **kwargs)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 276, in ugettext
     return do_translate(message, 'ugettext')
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 266, in do_translate
     _default = translation(settings.LANGUAGE_CODE)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 176, in translation
     default_translation = _fetch(settings.LANGUAGE_CODE)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 159, in _fetch
     app = import_module(appname)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
     __import__(name)
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
     from django.contrib.admin.helpers import ACTION_CHECKBOX_NAME
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/helpers.py", line 1, in <module>
     from django import forms
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/forms/__init__.py", line 17, in <module>
     from models import *
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/forms/models.py", line 6, in <module>
     from django.db import connections
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/db/__init__.py", line 77, in <module>
     connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS]
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 91, in __getitem__
     backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
   File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/django/db/utils.py", line 49, in load_backend
     raise ImproperlyConfigured(error_msg)
 TemplateSyntaxError: Caught ImproperlyConfigured while rendering: 'django.db.backends.mysql' isn't an available database backend. 
 Try using django.db.backends.XXX, where XXX is one of:
     'dummy', 'mysql', 'oracle', 'postgresql', 'postgresql_psycopg2', 'sqlite3'
 Error was: cannot import name utils

[anonymous]

This happens right on startup on a shared hosting provider. I am finding the traceback message unhelpful, since I am using "django.db.backends.mysql" in the settings.py and MySQLdb is definitely installed.

[Luke Plant]

It works for me, and there really isn't enough information to work out why it this is happening. The only thing I can suggest is that Django has not been installed properly or fully. Clearly the 'mysql' directory exists, otherwise you would not get that error message, but it must be broken in some way, and this might not be anything to do with the code that we released.

Please re-open if you can provide enough information for us to work out why this is happening, and it is a bug in Django. A command like this might help:

DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE='your_settings.py' python2.5 -c 'import django.db.backends.mysql.base'

[kurvenschubser@…]

Thanks for the feedback. Here is what I am getting now. The code you suggested is in *deployment.wsgi* towards the end.

In deployment.wsgi:

#!/usr/bin/python
import os
import sys

LIB_ROOT = "/var/www/userXXX/files/"

PROJECT_PKG = "myproject-0.2"
PROJECT_SETTINGS = 'myproject.settings'

DJANGO_PATH = "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3"

MESSAGES_PKG = "django_messages-0.4.4"
REGISTRATION_PKG = "django_registration-0.7"
TAGGING_PKG = "django_tagging-0.3.1"
MARKDOWN_PKG = "Markdown-2.0.3"
PYGMENTS_PKG = "Pygments-1.4"

PACKAGES = dict((
	## Comment this out to use the latest stable
	("django", DJANGO_PATH),
	("myproject", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, PROJECT_PKG)),
	("messages", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, MESSAGES_PKG)),
	("registration", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, REGISTRATION_PKG)),
	("tagging", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, TAGGING_PKG)),
	("markdown", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, MARKDOWN_PKG)),
	("pygments", os.path.join(LIB_ROOT, PYGMENTS_PKG)),
))

if "django" in PACKAGES:
	path = PACKAGES.pop("django")
	sys.path.insert(0, path)

for name, path in PACKAGES.items():
	try:
		__import__(name, globals())
	except ImportError, e:
		if not path in sys.path:
			sys.path.insert(0, path)


for name, ignore in PACKAGES.items():
	try:
		__import__(name, globals())
	except ImportError, e:
		raise

os.environ['DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = PROJECT_SETTINGS


import django.db.backends.mysql.base


from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
application = WSGIHandler()

In error_log:

   File "/var/www/mars98/html/kurvenschubser/deployment.wsgi", line 61, in <module>
     import django.db.backends.mysql.base
   File "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3/django/db/__init__.py", line 78, in <module>
     connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS]
   File "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3/django/db/utils.py", line 93, in __getitem__
     backend = load_backend(db['ENGINE'])
   File "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3/django/db/utils.py", line 33, in load_backend
     return import_module('.base', backend_name)
   File "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3/django/utils/importlib.py", line 35, in import_module
     __import__(name)
   File "/usr/share/django/Django-1.3/django/db/backends/mysql/base.py", line 28, in <module>
     from django.db import utils
 ImportError: cannot import name utils

[kurvenschubser@…]

looks like a circular import, I guess.
I tried versions 1.2.5 and 1.1.1 as well, it's the same issue.

[Ramiro Morales]

See also #14013, #12730.

[gloriajw]

I found that this error occurred for me when I migrated files from another server, but forgot to change template path. I fixed the path, and the error stopped. I think a munged path in the settings file causes this.

[Aymeric Augustin]

When importing django.db.backends.mysql.base:

• django/db/__init__.py executes successfully
• django/db/__init__.py:
  • imports ConnectionHandler from django.db.utils
    • at this point the utils module from django.db is imported and working.
  • runs connections = ConnectionHandler(settings.DATABASES)
  • reaches connection = connections[DEFAULT_DB_ALIAS] which appears in the traceback above.
• at the bottom the traceback, django/db/backends/mysql/base.py fails to import utils from django.db.

This is just weird.

Did you try to contact your hosting provider's technical support? Since it's a shared host, I guess you're using a version of Django installed by them at the system level. You must not be the only one trying to use Django with MySQL.