Django debug false on deployment

To change the DEBUG setting to False in Django settings during the deployment process, you can use environment variables. This approach allows to manage different settings for different environments (development, staging, production, etc.) without hardcoding them into your settings file.

1. Modify GitHub Actions Workflow

Update your GitHub Actions workflow to set the DJANGO_DEBUG environment variable to False when deploying:

name: Deploy

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Set up SSH
        uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.5.3
        with:
          ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}

      - name: Deploy to VPS
        run: |
          ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -vvv root@SERVER-IP << 'EOF'
            cd /path/to/docker/project
            docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml down
            cd ../
            rm -rf project
            git clone git@github.com:username/project.git
            cd project
            export DJANGO_DEBUG=False
            docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml build
            docker-compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d
            docker image prune -f
          EOF
        env:
          SSH_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
          DJANGO_DEBUG: False

2. Update Django Settings

Modify settings.py file to read the DJANGO_DEBUG environment variable:

import os

DEBUG = os.getenv('DJANGO_DEBUG', 'True') == 'True'

This code will default DEBUG to True if the DJANGO_DEBUG environment variable is not set. When you set DJANGO_DEBUG to False in your GitHub Actions workflow, it will set DEBUG to False.

3. Ensure Docker Compose File Passes the Environment Variable

Make sure that docker-compose.prod.yml passes the environment variable to the Django container. Update your docker-compose.prod.yml file to include the DJANGO_DEBUG environment variable:

version: "3.8"

services:
  web:
    image: django_image
    environment:
      - DJANGO_DEBUG=${DJANGO_DEBUG}
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    # other configurations...