I can't open manage.py

Question

On the command prompt, (Windows 10) I created a virtual environment, I then created a new project, I installed django in the virtual environment using pip. Then decided to run the command

 python manage.py runserver

To run djangos web server, This returned with

"...can't open file 'manage.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory"

I did see a similar question to this on this platform but it seems to only apply to those using linux. Where answers specify to use the ls command, which is not applicable on Windows command prompt. I have tried this multiple times but i just can't open

manage.py

Answer 1

When running a command on the command prompt, it is necessary to provide the correct path to the file.

Let's pretend you have your django files stored in a folder with the following path:

C:\my_stuff\subfolder\django_project >

Presume that when you run the dir command (the Windows analog to the ls command you mention in your question) it might show something like this:

C:\my_stuff\subfolder\django_project > dir

blog
db.sqlite3
manage.py
mysite

If you were to then run your command:

C:\my_stuff\subfolder\django_project > python manage.py runserver

Everything should work fine. But if you are in a different directory, you will get the error you describe. For example, this will fail.

C:\my_stuff\subfolder > python manage.py runserver

If, for some reason, your Windows command prompt does not show you which directory you are in, you can run the cd command to confirm where you are.

An alternate method is to point the python interpreter to the location of the manage.py script, by providing the path:

C:\my_stuff\subfolder > python django_project\manage.py runserver

But this sometimes introduces subtle problems, because scripts like manage.py might be written with the expectation that they will be run from the directory they are stored in. Your mileage may vary.