Gunicorn wouldn't run Django with WSGI

Question

I am trying to run my django project with gunicorn but getting error. To test I created everything new by running following commands:

virtualenv test_gunicorn
source test_gunicorn/bin/activate
pip install django gunicorn
cd test_gunicorn/
mkdir projects
cd projects/
django-admin startproject test_gunicorn
cd test_gunicorn/
gunicorn test_gunicorn/wsgi:application

but still got exactly same error that I was getting with my original project. Below is the error:

[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9122] [INFO] Starting gunicorn 19.3.0
[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9122] [INFO] Listening at: http://127.0.0.1:8000 (9122)
[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9122] [INFO] Using worker: sync
[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9127] [INFO] Booting worker with pid: 9127
[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9127] [ERROR] Exception in worker process:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 507, in spawn_worker
    worker.init_process()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/workers/base.py", line 118, in init_process
    self.wsgi = self.app.wsgi()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/base.py", line 67, in wsgi
    self.callable = self.load()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 65, in load
    return self.load_wsgiapp()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 52, in load_wsgiapp
    return util.import_app(self.app_uri)
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/util.py", line 355, in import_app
    __import__(module)
ImportError: Import by filename is not supported.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 507, in spawn_worker
    worker.init_process()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/workers/base.py", line 118, in init_process
    self.wsgi = self.app.wsgi()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/base.py", line 67, in wsgi
    self.callable = self.load()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 65, in load
    return self.load_wsgiapp()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 52, in load_wsgiapp
    return util.import_app(self.app_uri)
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/util.py", line 355, in import_app
    __import__(module)
ImportError: Import by filename is not supported.
[2015-07-13 14:22:33 +0000] [9127] [INFO] Worker exiting (pid: 9127)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/bin/gunicorn", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(run())
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/wsgiapp.py", line 74, in run
    WSGIApplication("%(prog)s [OPTIONS] [APP_MODULE]").run()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/base.py", line 189, in run
    super(Application, self).run()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/app/base.py", line 72, in run
    Arbiter(self).run()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 174, in run
    self.manage_workers()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 477, in manage_workers
    self.spawn_workers()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 541, in spawn_workers
    time.sleep(0.1 * random.random())
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 214, in handle_chld
    self.reap_workers()
  File "/home/tahir/official/virtualenvs/test_gunicorn/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gunicorn/arbiter.py", line 459, in reap_workers
    raise HaltServer(reason, self.WORKER_BOOT_ERROR)
gunicorn.errors.HaltServer: <HaltServer 'Worker failed to boot.' 3>

Here is output of pip freeze:

Django==1.8.3
gunicorn==19.3.0

Am I doing something wrong here or there is some issue with Django or gunicorn?

Answer 1

You should start gunicorn as gunicorn test_gunicorn.wsgi:application (note the dot instead of a slash between test_gunicorn and wsgi). Basically the syntax is the same as when you write an import statement in Python.

Answer 2

The error is telling you you're passing a file path rather than a Python module path. Your gunicorn invocation should be:

gunicorn test_gunicorn.wsgi:application