Quick install guide

Before you can use Django, you’ll need to get it installed. We have a complete installation guide that covers all the possibilities; this guide will guide you to a simple, minimal installation that’ll work while you walk through the introduction.

Install Python

Being a Python Web framework, Django requires Python. It works with any Python version from 2.6.5 to 2.7. It also features experimental support for versions 3.2 and 3.3. All these versions of Python include a lightweight database called SQLite so you won’t need to set up a database just yet.

Get Python at http://www.python.org. If you’re running Linux or Mac OS X, you probably already have it installed.

Django on Jython

If you use Jython (a Python implementation for the Java platform), you’ll need to follow a few additional steps. See Running Django on Jython for details.

You can verify that Python is installed by typing python from your shell; you should see something like:

Python 2.6.6 (r266:84292, Dec 26 2010, 22:31:48)
[GCC 4.4.5] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>

Set up a database

This step is only necessary if you’d like to work with a “large” database engine like PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle. To install such a database, consult the database installation information.

Remove any old versions of Django

If you are upgrading your installation of Django from a previous version, you will need to uninstall the old Django version before installing the new version.

Install Django

You’ve got three easy options to install Django:

Always refer to the documentation that corresponds to the version of Django you’re using!

If you do either of the first two steps, keep an eye out for parts of the documentation marked new in development version. That phrase flags features that are only available in development versions of Django, and they likely won’t work with an official release.

Verifying

To verify that Django can be seen by Python, type python from your shell. Then at the Python prompt, try to import Django:

>>> import django
>>> print(django.get_version())
1.5

You may have another version of Django installed.

That’s it!

That’s it – you can now move onto the tutorial.

« previous | up | next »