Deployment hung after migration

[ehmatthes]

Hi, I finally had a chance to try this, and it looks pretty impressive! I wanted to report what worked for me, and where the deployment seems to have gotten stuck.

I took the sample project from django-simple-deploy, and followed the instructions in the dsd-pythonanywhere readme. I watched it open a console in the browser, and it worked all the way through the migration:

...
Building wheels for collected packages: dsd-pythonanywhere, docopt
  Building wheel for dsd-pythonanywhere (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for dsd-pythonanywhere: filename=dsd_pythonanywhere-0.1.0-py3-none-any.whl size=17282 sha256=902d14397f4811
339ad8d694d396d6ec5e33579e797708313ea84230d28075ec
  Stored in directory: /tmp/pip-ephem-wheel-cache-h4d9d4ni/wheels/89/d3/b5/c99171e732f27267e62c723688259d7743dce0791546b36d
13
  Building wheel for docopt (pyproject.toml) ... done
  Created wheel for docopt: filename=docopt-0.6.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl size=13783 sha256=dc4ab58072aa0eb4b6ad43e6ce3c4601ae
93825a25750d9c992fd86f3a7dee1e
  Stored in directory: /home/ehmatthes/.cache/pip/wheels/0b/1d/03/175286677fb5a1341cc3e4755bf8ec0ed08f3329afd67446b0
Successfully built dsd-pythonanywhere docopt
Installing collected packages: schema, docopt, urllib3, ...
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 26.0.1
    Uninstalling pip-26.0.1:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-26.0.1
Successfully installed annotated-doc-0.0.4 asgiref-3.8.1...
Creating .env file...
.env file created.
Running migrations and collectstatic...
Operations to perform:
  Apply all migrations: admin, auth, blogs, contenttypes, sessions
Running migrations:
  Applying contenttypes.0001_initial... OK
  Applying auth.0001_initial... OK
  ...
  Applying blogs.0002_blog_public_blogpost_public... OK
  Applying sessions.0001_initial... OK
127 static files copied to '/home/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa/static'.
Setup complete!!!
02:19 ~ $

The console in the browser seemed to be finished, but I saw this in my local terminal where I ran the deploy command:

[main e598aec] Configured project for deployment.
 4 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
Pushing changes to remote repository...
Deploying to PythonAnywhere...
  Cloning and running setup script: curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog
  No active bash console found, starting a new one...
    Attempt 0: checking if console is ready
  API error status_code=412 error_data={'error': 'Console not yet started.  Please load it (or its iframe) in a browser first'}
    Console not started, opening browser...
    Attempt 1: checking if console is ready
    Polling attempt 1: waiting for command 'echo hello' to complete
  Command 'echo hello' completed
    Console is ready
    Polling attempt 1: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  Command not finished yet, sleeping before next poll...
    Polling attempt 2: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  Command not finished yet, sleeping before next poll...
    ...
    Polling attempt 13: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  Command not finished yet, sleeping before next poll...
    Polling attempt 14: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  Command not yet visible in output, waiting...
    Polling attempt 15: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  ...
    Polling attempt 40: waiting for command 'curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog' to complete
  Command not yet visible in output, waiting...

I canceled this with Ctrl-C, because it didn't seem like it was getting anywhere. I watched the video you shared earlier, and I could see that your deployment carried on much quicker after the web console finished its work.

In my PA dashboard I see a "Bash console", but I don't see any web apps. Should it have created a web app?

[ehmatthes]

The repo is here, if that helps.

[samar-syd7]

I’ve fixed similar Django issues before.
I can help debug this quickly today if you want.

[copelco]

Hi @ehmatthes!

Thanks for testing this.

It should have created a web app. It looks like the setup.sh script completed, but the Console API polling failed to detect that the command finished. The web app and WSGI file creation happen after that command, so they never ran.

I have run into this before and have tried to tweak the polling logic, but it still doesn't always catch it. I will try cloning your repo and testing it myself to see if I notice anything. Hopefully we can make the polling more robust!

[ehmatthes]

If there's any trouble sorting this, please let me know. I can do another deployment and figure out why the polling is failing after the console finishes its work.

[ehmatthes]

Diagnostic work

• I forked this plugin, installed it -e to a dev sample project, and tried to run deploy. It complained there were no plugins installed. Hatch doesn't include the same metadata as setup tools, so the mechanism for detecting which plugins are installed isn't picking up dsd-pythonanywhere. I patched dsd to look at import metadata names, but the actual fix will be addressed in dsd 430.
• The deployment seemed to succeed. It finished the console work, and created a web app. It failed around setting up the web app, but I'm pretty sure that's because I deleted the PA-provided venv in my PA bash console. I thought that venv was an artifact of a previous deployment.
• To run another test deployment:
  • git reset --hard ADDED_DSD && git clean -fd
  • git push origin main --force
  • Remove project dir in PA bash console.
  • Delete PA web app that was just created.
• A browser tab opens, but it has a server error. Here's the error log:

2026-02-18 15:23:32,067: Error running WSGI application
2026-02-18 15:23:32,083: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'django.dispatch'
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:   File "/var/www/ehmatthes_pythonanywhere_com_wsgi.py", line 19, in <module>
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:     from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application  # noqa E402
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084: 
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:   File "/home/ehmatthes/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/django/core/wsgi.py", line 2, in <module>
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:     from django.core.handlers.wsgi import WSGIHandler
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084: 
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:   File "/home/ehmatthes/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/django/core/handlers/wsgi.py", line 4, in <module>
2026-02-18 15:23:32,084:     from django.core import signals
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: 
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085:   File "/home/ehmatthes/venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/django/core/signals.py", line 1, in <module>
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085:     from django.dispatch import Signal
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: ***************************************************
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: If you're seeing an import error and don't know why,
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: we have a dedicated help page to help you debug: 
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: https://help.pythonanywhere.com/pages/DebuggingImportError/
2026-02-18 15:23:32,085: ***************************************************

• Try updating to Django 5.2, see if anything changes. (No changes.)
• Note: dsd-pythonanywhere probably doesn't need to be added to requirements. dsd does, because it's listed in INSTALLED_APPS.

I'm at a loss for the moment. Does anyone have any idea why I'd see an issue with django.dispatch? I don't fully understand how dependencies are managed in a PA deployment.

[ehmatthes]

Okay, I think I got a little further. I was finally able to rm -rf my venv dir on PA. I then rebuilt that venv, and ran another test deployment.

This time I got to the same hanging behavior that led to opening this issue originally. I saw that it was hanging on this command:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/caktus/dsd-pythonanywhere/refs/heads/main/scripts/setup.sh | bash -s -- https://github.com/ehmatthes/blogmaker-lite-pa.git blogmaker-lite-pa blog

So I opened a bash console on PA, and ran that command. It finished in about 10-20s. I got the setup complete message in the bash console. I think it had already succeeded, because it didn't need to run any migrations.

I think my next steps are to:

• Run another deployment. If it hangs, put a breakpoint in client.wait_for_command_completion(), and try to see why it's not picking up that the command has finished. Drop into the bash console to see if it has finished.
• If the deployment doesn't hang, see if rebuilding the venv earlier avoids the django.dispatch import issue I was seeing earlier.

I'll try to get back to this in the next day or two.

[copelco]

Hi @ehmatthes, I think I found the problem and pushed up draft #15. It appears the polling wasn't detecting completion when the command output pushed the prompt out of the console buffer.

Here's a video of it working for me.

I'm not sure why you're seeing the django.dispatch error though. I ran into the same forever polling you did. So I started from that state, by deleting the dirs on PA. I ran uv pip install -e "../dsd-pythonanywhere/[dev]" from my clone of your repo before starting the recording. Maybe we can compare our environment details to see what might be different.

[ehmatthes]

That worked for me!

I reset my sample project, uninstalled my local dsd-pythonanywhere, and installed the branch from #14. The deployment worked perfectly, and the deployed project opened in a new browser tab. All the functionality tests passed for the deployed project as well.

The only thing to note is that it didn't open a PA console in a browser, so I didn't see the progress on PA. I think in my first attempt it did open that console. I think I could have clicked on the console in my dashboard and watched the progress.

I think the django.dispatch issue was coming from a corrupted/ conflicting venv. I think that issue is probably fully resolved at this point.

I'd be happy to close this issue with merging of #14.

[copelco]

Thanks again for the report @ehmatthes! Just released v0.1.1

[copelco]

@ehmatthes Ah I forgot to follow up on the console not opening in your browser. If a console is already initiated on PythonAnywhere, the plugin tries to reuse it rather than triggering a new window. I think this is why it didn't pop up during your second run.