System check framework¶
The system check framework is a set of static checks for validating Django projects. It detects common problems and provides hints for how to fix them. The framework is extensible so you can easily add your own checks.
For details on how to add your own checks and integrate them with Django’s system checks, see the System check topic guide.
API reference¶
CheckMessage¶
The warnings and errors raised by system checks must be instances of
CheckMessage. An instance encapsulates a single reportable error or
warning. It also provides context and hints applicable to the message, and a
unique identifier that is used for filtering purposes.
Constructor arguments are:
level- The severity of the message. Use one of the predefined values:
DEBUG,INFO,WARNING,ERROR,CRITICAL. If the level is greater or equal toERROR, then Django will prevent management commands from executing. Messages with level lower thanERROR(i.e. warnings) are reported to the console, but can be silenced. msg- A short (less than 80 characters) string describing the problem. The string should not contain newlines.
hint- A single-line string providing a hint for fixing the problem. If no hint
can be provided, or the hint is self-evident from the error message, the
hint can be omitted, or a value of
Nonecan be used. obj- Optional. An object providing context for the message (for example, the
model where the problem was discovered). The object should be a model,
field, or manager or any other object that defines
__str__method (on Python 2 you need to define__unicode__method). The method is used while reporting all messages and its result precedes the message. id- Optional string. A unique identifier for the issue. Identifiers should
follow the pattern
applabel.X001, whereXis one of the lettersCEWID, indicating the message severity (Cfor criticals,Efor errors and so). The number can be allocated by the application, but should be unique within that application.
There are subclasses to make creating messages with common levels easier. When
using them you can omit the level argument because it is implied by the
class name.
Builtin tags¶
Django’s system checks are organized using the following tags:
admin: Checks of any admin site declarations.caches: Checks cache related configuration.compatibility: Flags potential problems with version upgrades.database: Checks database-related configuration issues. Database checks are not run by default because they do more than static code analysis as regular checks do. They are only run by themigratecommand or if you specify thedatabasetag when calling thecheckcommand.models: Checks of model, field, and manager definitions.security: Checks security related configuration.signals: Checks on signal declarations and handler registrations.templates: Checks template related configuration.urls: Checks URL configuration.
Some checks may be registered with multiple tags.
Core system checks¶
Backwards compatibility¶
The following checks are performed to warn the user of any potential problems that might occur as a result of a version upgrade.
- 1_6.W001: Some project unit tests may not execute as expected. This check was removed in Django 1.8 due to false positives.
- 1_6.W002:
BooleanFielddoes not have a default value. This check was removed in Django 1.8 due to false positives. - 1_7.W001: Django 1.7 changed the global defaults for the
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES.django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware,django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware, anddjango.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddlewarewere removed from the defaults. If your project needs these middleware then you should configure this setting. This check was removed in Django 1.9. - 1_8.W001: The standalone
TEMPLATE_*settings were deprecated in Django 1.8 and theTEMPLATESdictionary takes precedence. You must put the values of the following settings into your defaultsTEMPLATESdict:TEMPLATE_DIRS,TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS,TEMPLATE_DEBUG,TEMPLATE_LOADERS,TEMPLATE_STRING_IF_INVALID. - 1_10.W001: The
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSESsetting is deprecated in Django 1.10 and theMIDDLEWAREsetting takes precedence. Since you’ve setMIDDLEWARE, the value ofMIDDLEWARE_CLASSESis ignored.
Caches¶
The following checks verify that your CACHES setting is correctly
configured:
- caches.E001: You must define a
'default'cache in yourCACHESsetting.
Database¶
MySQL¶
If you’re using MySQL, the following checks will be performed:
- mysql.E001: MySQL does not allow unique
CharFields to have amax_length> 255. - mysql.W002: MySQL Strict Mode is not set for database connection “<alias>”. See also Setting sql_mode.
Model fields¶
- fields.E001: Field names must not end with an underscore.
- fields.E002: Field names must not contain
"__". - fields.E003:
pkis a reserved word that cannot be used as a field name. - fields.E004:
choicesmust be an iterable (e.g., a list or tuple). - fields.E005:
choicesmust be an iterable returning(actual value, human readable name)tuples. - fields.E006:
db_indexmust beNone,TrueorFalse. - fields.E007: Primary keys must not have
null=True. - fields.E100:
AutoFields must set primary_key=True. - fields.E110:
BooleanFields do not accept null values. - fields.E120:
CharFields must define amax_lengthattribute. - fields.E121:
max_lengthmust be a positive integer. - fields.W122:
max_lengthis ignored when used withIntegerField. - fields.E130:
DecimalFields must define adecimal_placesattribute. - fields.E131:
decimal_placesmust be a non-negative integer. - fields.E132:
DecimalFields must define amax_digitsattribute. - fields.E133:
max_digitsmust be a non-negative integer. - fields.E134:
max_digitsmust be greater or equal todecimal_places. - fields.E140:
FilePathFields must have eitherallow_filesorallow_foldersset to True. - fields.E150:
GenericIPAddressFields cannot accept blank values if null values are not allowed, as blank values are stored as nulls. - fields.E160: The options
auto_now,auto_now_add, anddefaultare mutually exclusive. Only one of these options may be present. - fields.W161: Fixed default value provided.
- fields.E900:
IPAddressFieldhas been removed except for support in historical migrations. - fields.W900:
IPAddressFieldhas been deprecated. Support for it (except in historical migrations) will be removed in Django 1.9. This check appeared in Django 1.7 and 1.8. - fields.W901:
CommaSeparatedIntegerFieldhas been deprecated. Support for it (except in historical migrations) will be removed in Django 2.0.
File fields¶
- fields.E200:
uniqueis not a valid argument for aFileField. This check is removed in Django 1.11. - fields.E201:
primary_keyis not a valid argument for aFileField. - fields.E202:
FileField’supload_toargument must be a relative path, not an absolute path. - fields.E210: Cannot use
ImageFieldbecause Pillow is not installed.
Models¶
- models.E001:
<swappable>is not of the formapp_label.app_name. - models.E002:
<SETTING>references<model>, which has not been installed, or is abstract. - models.E003: The model has two many-to-many relations through the
intermediate model
<app_label>.<model>. - models.E004:
idcan only be used as a field name if the field also setsprimary_key=True. - models.E005: The field
<field name>from parent model<model>clashes with the field<field name>from parent model<model>. - models.E006: The field clashes with the field
<field name>from model<model>. - models.E007: Field
<field name>has column name<column name>that is used by another field. - models.E008:
index_togethermust be a list or tuple. - models.E009: All
index_togetherelements must be lists or tuples. - models.E010:
unique_togethermust be a list or tuple. - models.E011: All
unique_togetherelements must be lists or tuples. - models.E012:
index_together/unique_togetherrefers to the non-existent field<field name>. - models.E013:
index_together/unique_togetherrefers to aManyToManyField<field name>, butManyToManyFields are not supported for that option. - models.E014:
orderingmust be a tuple or list (even if you want to order by only one field). - models.E015:
orderingrefers to the non-existent field<field name>. - models.E016:
index_together/unique_togetherrefers to field<field_name>which is not local to model<model>. - models.E017: Proxy model
<model>contains model fields. - models.E018: Autogenerated column name too long for field
<field>. Maximum length is<maximum length>for database<alias>. - models.E019: Autogenerated column name too long for M2M field
<M2M field>. Maximum length is<maximum length>for database<alias>. - models.E020: The
<model>.check()class method is currently overridden. - models.E021:
orderingandorder_with_respect_tocannot be used together. - models.E022:
<function>contains a lazy reference to<app label>.<model>, but app<app label>isn’t installed or doesn’t provide model<model>. - models.E023: The model name
<model>cannot start or end with an underscore as it collides with the query lookup syntax. - models.E024: The model name
<model>cannot contain double underscores as it collides with the query lookup syntax.
Security¶
The security checks do not make your site secure. They do not audit code, do intrusion detection, or do anything particularly complex. Rather, they help perform an automated, low-hanging-fruit checklist. They help you remember the simple things that improve your site’s security.
Some of these checks may not be appropriate for your particular deployment
configuration. For instance, if you do your HTTP to HTTPS redirection in a load
balancer, it’d be irritating to be constantly warned about not having enabled
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECT. Use SILENCED_SYSTEM_CHECKS to
silence unneeded checks.
The following checks are run if you use the check --deploy option:
- security.W001: You do not have
django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddlewarein yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSESso theSECURE_HSTS_SECONDS,SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFF,SECURE_BROWSER_XSS_FILTER, andSECURE_SSL_REDIRECTsettings will have no effect. - security.W002: You do not have
django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddlewarein yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, so your pages will not be served with an'x-frame-options'header. Unless there is a good reason for your site to be served in a frame, you should consider enabling this header to help prevent clickjacking attacks. - security.W003: You don’t appear to be using Django’s built-in cross-site
request forgery protection via the middleware
(
django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddlewareis not in yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES). Enabling the middleware is the safest approach to ensure you don’t leave any holes. - security.W004: You have not set a value for the
SECURE_HSTS_SECONDSsetting. If your entire site is served only over SSL, you may want to consider setting a value and enabling HTTP Strict Transport Security. Be sure to read the documentation first; enabling HSTS carelessly can cause serious, irreversible problems. - security.W005: You have not set the
SECURE_HSTS_INCLUDE_SUBDOMAINSsetting toTrue. Without this, your site is potentially vulnerable to attack via an insecure connection to a subdomain. Only set this toTrueif you are certain that all subdomains of your domain should be served exclusively via SSL. - security.W006: Your
SECURE_CONTENT_TYPE_NOSNIFFsetting is not set toTrue, so your pages will not be served with an'x-content-type-options: nosniff'header. You should consider enabling this header to prevent the browser from identifying content types incorrectly. - security.W007: Your
SECURE_BROWSER_XSS_FILTERsetting is not set toTrue, so your pages will not be served with an'x-xss-protection: 1; mode=block'header. You should consider enabling this header to activate the browser’s XSS filtering and help prevent XSS attacks. - security.W008: Your
SECURE_SSL_REDIRECTsetting is not set toTrue. Unless your site should be available over both SSL and non-SSL connections, you may want to either set this setting toTrueor configure a load balancer or reverse-proxy server to redirect all connections to HTTPS. - security.W009: Your
SECRET_KEYhas less than 50 characters or less than 5 unique characters. Please generate a long and randomSECRET_KEY, otherwise many of Django’s security-critical features will be vulnerable to attack. - security.W010: You have
django.contrib.sessionsin yourINSTALLED_APPSbut you have not setSESSION_COOKIE_SECUREtoTrue. Using a secure-only session cookie makes it more difficult for network traffic sniffers to hijack user sessions. - security.W011: You have
django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddlewarein yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, but you have not setSESSION_COOKIE_SECUREtoTrue. Using a secure-only session cookie makes it more difficult for network traffic sniffers to hijack user sessions. - security.W012:
SESSION_COOKIE_SECUREis not set toTrue. Using a secure-only session cookie makes it more difficult for network traffic sniffers to hijack user sessions. - security.W013: You have
django.contrib.sessionsin yourINSTALLED_APPS, but you have not setSESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLYtoTrue. Using anHttpOnlysession cookie makes it more difficult for cross-site scripting attacks to hijack user sessions. - security.W014: You have
django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddlewarein yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, but you have not setSESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLYtoTrue. Using anHttpOnlysession cookie makes it more difficult for cross-site scripting attacks to hijack user sessions. - security.W015:
SESSION_COOKIE_HTTPONLYis not set toTrue. Using anHttpOnlysession cookie makes it more difficult for cross-site scripting attacks to hijack user sessions. - security.W016:
CSRF_COOKIE_SECUREis not set toTrue. Using a secure-only CSRF cookie makes it more difficult for network traffic sniffers to steal the CSRF token. - security.W017:
CSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLYis not set toTrue. Using anHttpOnlyCSRF cookie makes it more difficult for cross-site scripting attacks to steal the CSRF token. This check is removed in Django 1.11 as theCSRF_COOKIE_HTTPONLYsetting offers no pratical benefit. - security.W018: You should not have
DEBUGset toTruein deployment. - security.W019: You have
django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddlewarein yourMIDDLEWARE/MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES, butX_FRAME_OPTIONSis not set to'DENY'. The default is'SAMEORIGIN', but unless there is a good reason for your site to serve other parts of itself in a frame, you should change it to'DENY'. - security.W020:
ALLOWED_HOSTSmust not be empty in deployment. - security.W021: You have not set the
SECURE_HSTS_PRELOADsetting toTrue. Without this, your site cannot be submitted to the browser preload list.
Signals¶
- signals.E001:
<handler>was connected to the<signal>signal with a lazy reference to the sender<app label>.<model>, but app<app label>isn’t installed or doesn’t provide model<model>.
URLs¶
The following checks are performed on your URL configuration:
- urls.W001: Your URL pattern
<pattern>usesinclude()with aregexending with a$. Remove the dollar from theregexto avoid problems including URLs. - urls.W002: Your URL pattern
<pattern>has aregexbeginning with a/. Remove this slash as it is unnecessary. If this pattern is targeted in aninclude(), ensure theinclude()pattern has a trailing/. - urls.W003: Your URL pattern
<pattern>has anameincluding a:. Remove the colon, to avoid ambiguous namespace references. - urls.E004: Your URL pattern
<pattern>is invalid. Ensure thaturlpatternsis a list ofurl()instances. - urls.W005: URL namespace
<namespace>isn’t unique. You may not be able to reverse all URLs in this namespace. - urls.E006: The
MEDIA_URL/STATIC_URLsetting must end with a slash.
contrib app checks¶
admin¶
Admin checks are all performed as part of the admin tag.
The following checks are performed on any
ModelAdmin (or subclass) that is registered
with the admin site:
- admin.E001: The value of
raw_id_fieldsmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E002: The value of
raw_id_fields[n]refers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E003: The value of
raw_id_fields[n]must be a foreign key or a many-to-many field. - admin.E004: The value of
fieldsmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E005: Both
fieldsetsandfieldsare specified. - admin.E006: The value of
fieldscontains duplicate field(s). - admin.E007: The value of
fieldsetsmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E008: The value of
fieldsets[n]must be a list or tuple. - admin.E009: The value of
fieldsets[n]must be of length 2. - admin.E010: The value of
fieldsets[n][1]must be a dictionary. - admin.E011: The value of
fieldsets[n][1]must contain the keyfields. - admin.E012: There are duplicate field(s) in
fieldsets[n][1]. - admin.E013:
fields[n]/fieldsets[n][m]cannot include theManyToManyField<field name>, because that field manually specifies a relationship model. - admin.E014: The value of
excludemust be a list or tuple. - admin.E015: The value of
excludecontains duplicate field(s). - admin.E016: The value of
formmust inherit fromBaseModelForm. - admin.E017: The value of
filter_verticalmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E018: The value of
filter_horizontalmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E019: The value of
filter_vertical[n]/filter_vertical[n]refers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E020: The value of
filter_vertical[n]/filter_vertical[n]must be a many-to-many field. - admin.E021: The value of
radio_fieldsmust be a dictionary. - admin.E022: The value of
radio_fieldsrefers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E023: The value of
radio_fieldsrefers to<field name>, which is not aForeignKey, and does not have achoicesdefinition. - admin.E024: The value of
radio_fields[<field name>]must be eitheradmin.HORIZONTALoradmin.VERTICAL. - admin.E025: The value of
view_on_sitemust be either a callable or a boolean value. - admin.E026: The value of
prepopulated_fieldsmust be a dictionary. - admin.E027: The value of
prepopulated_fieldsrefers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E028: The value of
prepopulated_fieldsrefers to<field name>, which must not be aDateTimeField, aForeignKey, aOneToOneField, or aManyToManyFieldfield. - admin.E029: The value of
prepopulated_fields[<field name>]must be a list or tuple. - admin.E030: The value of
prepopulated_fieldsrefers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E031: The value of
orderingmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E032: The value of
orderinghas the random ordering marker?, but contains other fields as well. - admin.E033: The value of
orderingrefers to<field name>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E034: The value of
readonly_fieldsmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E035: The value of
readonly_fields[n]is not a callable, an attribute of<ModelAdmin class>, or an attribute of<model>.
ModelAdmin¶
The following checks are performed on any
ModelAdmin that is registered
with the admin site:
- admin.E101: The value of
save_asmust be a boolean. - admin.E102: The value of
save_on_topmust be a boolean. - admin.E103: The value of
inlinesmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E104:
<InlineModelAdmin class>must inherit fromInlineModelAdmin. - admin.E105:
<InlineModelAdmin class>must have amodelattribute. - admin.E106: The value of
<InlineModelAdmin class>.modelmust be aModel. - admin.E107: The value of
list_displaymust be a list or tuple. - admin.E108: The value of
list_display[n]refers to<label>, which is not a callable, an attribute of<ModelAdmin class>, or an attribute or method on<model>. - admin.E109: The value of
list_display[n]must not be aManyToManyFieldfield. - admin.E110: The value of
list_display_linksmust be a list, a tuple, orNone. - admin.E111: The value of
list_display_links[n]refers to<label>, which is not defined inlist_display. - admin.E112: The value of
list_filtermust be a list or tuple. - admin.E113: The value of
list_filter[n]must inherit fromListFilter. - admin.E114: The value of
list_filter[n]must not inherit fromFieldListFilter. - admin.E115: The value of
list_filter[n][1]must inherit fromFieldListFilter. - admin.E116: The value of
list_filter[n]refers to<label>, which does not refer to a Field. - admin.E117: The value of
list_select_relatedmust be a boolean, tuple or list. - admin.E118: The value of
list_per_pagemust be an integer. - admin.E119: The value of
list_max_show_allmust be an integer. - admin.E120: The value of
list_editablemust be a list or tuple. - admin.E121: The value of
list_editable[n]refers to<label>, which is not an attribute of<model>. - admin.E122: The value of
list_editable[n]refers to<label>, which is not contained inlist_display. - admin.E123: The value of
list_editable[n]cannot be in bothlist_editableandlist_display_links. - admin.E124: The value of
list_editable[n]refers to the first field inlist_display(<label>), which cannot be used unlesslist_display_linksis set. - admin.E125: The value of
list_editable[n]refers to<field name>, which is not editable through the admin. - admin.E126: The value of
search_fieldsmust be a list or tuple. - admin.E127: The value of
date_hierarchyrefers to<field name>, which does not refer to a Field. - admin.E128: The value of
date_hierarchymust be aDateFieldorDateTimeField.
InlineModelAdmin¶
The following checks are performed on any
InlineModelAdmin that is registered as an
inline on a ModelAdmin.
- admin.E201: Cannot exclude the field
<field name>, because it is the foreign key to the parent model<app_label>.<model>. - admin.E202:
<model>has noForeignKeyto<parent model>./<model>has more than oneForeignKeyto<parent model>. - admin.E203: The value of
extramust be an integer. - admin.E204: The value of
max_nummust be an integer. - admin.E205: The value of
min_nummust be an integer. - admin.E206: The value of
formsetmust inherit fromBaseModelFormSet.
GenericInlineModelAdmin¶
The following checks are performed on any
GenericInlineModelAdmin that is
registered as an inline on a ModelAdmin.
- admin.E301:
'ct_field'references<label>, which is not a field on<model>. - admin.E302:
'ct_fk_field'references<label>, which is not a field on<model>. - admin.E303:
<model>has noGenericForeignKey. - admin.E304:
<model>has noGenericForeignKeyusing content type field<field name>and object ID field<field name>.
AdminSite¶
The following checks are performed on the default
AdminSite:
- admin.E401:
django.contrib.contenttypesmust be inINSTALLED_APPSin order to use the admin application. - admin.E402:
django.contrib.auth.context_processors.authmust be inTEMPLATESin order to use the admin application.
auth¶
- auth.E001:
REQUIRED_FIELDSmust be a list or tuple. - auth.E002: The field named as the
USERNAME_FIELDfor a custom user model must not be included inREQUIRED_FIELDS. - auth.E003:
<field>must be unique because it is named as theUSERNAME_FIELD. - auth.W004:
<field>is named as theUSERNAME_FIELD, but it is not unique. - auth.E005: The permission codenamed
<codename>clashes with a builtin permission for model<model>. - auth.E006: The permission codenamed
<codename>is duplicated for model<model>. - auth.E007: The
verbose_nameof model<model>must be at most 244 characters for its builtin permission names to be at most 255 characters. - auth.E008: The permission named
<name>of model<model>is longer than 255 characters. - auth.C009:
<User model>.is_anonymousmust be an attribute or property rather than a method. Ignoring this is a security issue as anonymous users will be treated as authenticated! - auth.C010:
<User model>.is_authenticatedmust be an attribute or property rather than a method. Ignoring this is a security issue as anonymous users will be treated as authenticated!
contenttypes¶
The following checks are performed when a model contains a
GenericForeignKey or
GenericRelation:
- contenttypes.E001: The
GenericForeignKeyobject ID references the non-existent field<field>. - contenttypes.E002: The
GenericForeignKeycontent type references the non-existent field<field>. - contenttypes.E003:
<field>is not aForeignKey. - contenttypes.E004:
<field>is not aForeignKeytocontenttypes.ContentType.
sites¶
The following checks are performed on any model using a
CurrentSiteManager:
- sites.E001:
CurrentSiteManagercould not find a field named<field name>. - sites.E002:
CurrentSiteManagercannot use<field>as it is not a foreign key or a many-to-many field.