===========================
Writing database migrations
===========================

This document explains how to structure and write database migrations for
different scenarios you might encounter. For introductory material on
migrations, see :doc:`the topic guide </topics/migrations>`.

.. _data-migrations-and-multiple-databases:

Data migrations and multiple databases
======================================

When using multiple databases, you may need to figure out whether or not to
run a migration against a particular database. For example, you may want to
**only** run a migration on a particular database.

In order to do that you can check the database connection's alias inside a
``RunPython`` operation by looking at the ``schema_editor.connection.alias``
attribute::

    from django.db import migrations

    def forwards(apps, schema_editor):
        if schema_editor.connection.alias != 'default':
            return
        # Your migration code goes here

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            # Dependencies to other migrations
        ]

        operations = [
            migrations.RunPython(forwards),
        ]

You can also provide hints that will be passed to the :meth:`allow_migrate()`
method of database routers as ``**hints``:

.. code-block:: python
    :caption: myapp/dbrouters.py

    class MyRouter:

        def allow_migrate(self, db, app_label, model_name=None, **hints):
            if 'target_db' in hints:
                return db == hints['target_db']
            return True

Then, to leverage this in your migrations, do the following::

    from django.db import migrations

    def forwards(apps, schema_editor):
        # Your migration code goes here
        ...

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            # Dependencies to other migrations
        ]

        operations = [
            migrations.RunPython(forwards, hints={'target_db': 'default'}),
        ]

If your ``RunPython`` or ``RunSQL`` operation only affects one model, it's good
practice to pass ``model_name`` as a hint to make it as transparent as possible
to the router. This is especially important for reusable and third-party apps.

Migrations that add unique fields
=================================

Applying a "plain" migration that adds a unique non-nullable field to a table
with existing rows will raise an error because the value used to populate
existing rows is generated only once, thus breaking the unique constraint.

Therefore, the following steps should be taken. In this example, we'll add a
non-nullable :class:`~django.db.models.UUIDField` with a default value. Modify
the respective field according to your needs.

* Add the field on your model with ``default=uuid.uuid4`` and ``unique=True``
  arguments (choose an appropriate default for the type of the field you're
  adding).

* Run the :djadmin:`makemigrations` command. This should generate a migration
  with an ``AddField`` operation.

* Generate two empty migration files for the same app by running
  ``makemigrations myapp --empty`` twice. We've renamed the migration files to
  give them meaningful names in the examples below.

* Copy the ``AddField`` operation from the auto-generated migration (the first
  of the three new files) to the last migration, change ``AddField`` to
  ``AlterField``, and add imports of ``uuid`` and ``models``. For example:

  .. code-block:: python
    :caption: 0006_remove_uuid_null.py

    # Generated by Django A.B on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
    from django.db import migrations, models
    import uuid

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            ('myapp', '0005_populate_uuid_values'),
        ]

        operations = [
            migrations.AlterField(
                model_name='mymodel',
                name='uuid',
                field=models.UUIDField(default=uuid.uuid4, unique=True),
            ),
        ]

* Edit the first migration file. The generated migration class should look
  similar to this:

  .. code-block:: python
    :caption: 0004_add_uuid_field.py

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            ('myapp', '0003_auto_20150129_1705'),
        ]

        operations = [
            migrations.AddField(
                model_name='mymodel',
                name='uuid',
                field=models.UUIDField(default=uuid.uuid4, unique=True),
            ),
        ]

  Change ``unique=True`` to ``null=True`` -- this will create the intermediary
  null field and defer creating the unique constraint until we've populated
  unique values on all the rows.

* In the first empty migration file, add a
  :class:`~django.db.migrations.operations.RunPython` or
  :class:`~django.db.migrations.operations.RunSQL` operation to generate a
  unique value (UUID in the example) for each existing row. Also add an import
  of ``uuid``. For example:

  .. code-block:: python
    :caption: 0005_populate_uuid_values.py

    # Generated by Django A.B on YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
    from django.db import migrations
    import uuid

    def gen_uuid(apps, schema_editor):
        MyModel = apps.get_model('myapp', 'MyModel')
        for row in MyModel.objects.all():
            row.uuid = uuid.uuid4()
            row.save(update_fields=['uuid'])

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            ('myapp', '0004_add_uuid_field'),
        ]

        operations = [
            # omit reverse_code=... if you don't want the migration to be reversible.
            migrations.RunPython(gen_uuid, reverse_code=migrations.RunPython.noop),
        ]

* Now you can apply the migrations as usual with the :djadmin:`migrate` command.

  Note there is a race condition if you allow objects to be created while this
  migration is running. Objects created after the ``AddField`` and before
  ``RunPython`` will have their original ``uuid``’s overwritten.

.. _non-atomic-migrations:

Non-atomic migrations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On databases that support DDL transactions (SQLite and PostgreSQL), migrations
will run inside a transaction by default. For use cases such as performing data
migrations on large tables, you may want to prevent a migration from running in
a transaction by setting the ``atomic`` attribute to ``False``::

    from django.db import migrations

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):
        atomic = False

Within such a migration, all operations are run without a transaction. It's
possible to execute parts of the migration inside a transaction using
:func:`~django.db.transaction.atomic()` or by passing ``atomic=True`` to
``RunPython``.

Here's an example of a non-atomic data migration that updates a large table in
smaller batches::

    import uuid

    from django.db import migrations, transaction

    def gen_uuid(apps, schema_editor):
        MyModel = apps.get_model('myapp', 'MyModel')
        while MyModel.objects.filter(uuid__isnull=True).exists():
            with transaction.atomic():
                for row in MyModel.objects.filter(uuid__isnull=True)[:1000]:
                    row.uuid = uuid.uuid4()
                    row.save()

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):
        atomic = False

        operations = [
            migrations.RunPython(gen_uuid),
        ]

The ``atomic`` attribute doesn't have an effect on databases that don't support
DDL transactions (e.g. MySQL, Oracle). (MySQL's `atomic DDL statement support
<https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/atomic-ddl.html>`_ refers to individual
statements rather than multiple statements wrapped in a transaction that can be
rolled back.)

Controlling the order of migrations
===================================

Django determines the order in which migrations should be applied not by the
filename of each migration, but by building a graph using two properties on the
``Migration`` class: ``dependencies`` and ``run_before``.

If you've used the :djadmin:`makemigrations` command you've probably
already seen ``dependencies`` in action because auto-created
migrations have this defined as part of their creation process.

The ``dependencies`` property is declared like this::

    from django.db import migrations

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):

        dependencies = [
            ('myapp', '0123_the_previous_migration'),
        ]

Usually this will be enough, but from time to time you may need to
ensure that your migration runs *before* other migrations. This is
useful, for example, to make third-party apps' migrations run *after*
your :setting:`AUTH_USER_MODEL` replacement.

To achieve this, place all migrations that should depend on yours in
the ``run_before`` attribute on your ``Migration`` class::

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):
        ...

        run_before = [
            ('third_party_app', '0001_do_awesome'),
        ]

Prefer using ``dependencies`` over ``run_before`` when possible. You should
only use ``run_before`` if it is undesirable or impractical to specify
``dependencies`` in the migration which you want to run after the one you are
writing.

Migrating data between third-party apps
=======================================

You can use a data migration to move data from one third-party application to
another.

If you plan to remove the old app later, you'll need to set the ``dependencies``
property based on whether or not the old app is installed. Otherwise, you'll
have missing dependencies once you uninstall the old app. Similarly, you'll
need to catch :exc:`LookupError` in the ``apps.get_model()`` call that
retrieves models from the old app. This approach allows you to deploy your
project anywhere without first installing and then uninstalling the old app.

Here's a sample migration:

.. code-block:: python
    :caption: myapp/migrations/0124_move_old_app_to_new_app.py

    from django.apps import apps as global_apps
    from django.db import migrations

    def forwards(apps, schema_editor):
        try:
            OldModel = apps.get_model('old_app', 'OldModel')
        except LookupError:
            # The old app isn't installed.
            return

        NewModel = apps.get_model('new_app', 'NewModel')
        NewModel.objects.bulk_create(
            NewModel(new_attribute=old_object.old_attribute)
            for old_object in OldModel.objects.all()
        )

    class Migration(migrations.Migration):
        operations = [
            migrations.RunPython(forwards, migrations.RunPython.noop),
        ]
        dependencies = [
            ('myapp', '0123_the_previous_migration'),
            ('new_app', '0001_initial'),
        ]

        if global_apps.is_installed('old_app'):
            dependencies.append(('old_app', '0001_initial'))

Also consider what you want to happen when the migration is unapplied. You
could either do nothing (as in the example above) or remove some or all of the
data from the new application. Adjust the second argument of the
:mod:`~django.db.migrations.operations.RunPython` operation accordingly.

.. _changing-a-manytomanyfield-to-use-a-through-model:

Changing a ``ManyToManyField`` to use a ``through`` model
=========================================================

If you change a :class:`~django.db.models.ManyToManyField` to use a ``through``
model, the default migration will delete the existing table and create a new
one, losing the existing relations. To avoid this, you can use
:class:`.SeparateDatabaseAndState` to rename the existing table to the new
table name while telling the migration autodetector that the new model has
been created. You can check the existing table name through
:djadmin:`sqlmigrate` or :djadmin:`dbshell`. You can check the new table name
with the through model's ``_meta.db_table`` property. Your new ``through``
model should use the same names for the ``ForeignKey``\s as Django did. Also if
it needs any extra fields, they should be added in operations after
:class:`.SeparateDatabaseAndState`.

For example, if we had a ``Book`` model with a ``ManyToManyField`` linking to
``Author``, we could add a through model ``AuthorBook`` with a new field
``is_primary``, like so::

    from django.db import migrations, models
    import django.db.models.deletion


    class Migration(migrations.Migration):
        dependencies = [
            ('core', '0001_initial'),
        ]

        operations = [
            migrations.SeparateDatabaseAndState(
                database_operations=[
                    # Old table name from checking with sqlmigrate, new table
                    # name from AuthorBook._meta.db_table.
                    migrations.RunSQL(
                        sql='ALTER TABLE core_book_authors RENAME TO core_authorbook',
                        reverse_sql='ALTER TABLE core_authorbook RENAME TO core_book_authors',
                    ),
                ],
                state_operations=[
                    migrations.CreateModel(
                        name='AuthorBook',
                        fields=[
                            (
                                'id',
                                models.AutoField(
                                    auto_created=True,
                                    primary_key=True,
                                    serialize=False,
                                    verbose_name='ID',
                                ),
                            ),
                            (
                                'author',
                                models.ForeignKey(
                                    on_delete=django.db.models.deletion.DO_NOTHING,
                                    to='core.Author',
                                ),
                            ),
                            (
                                'book',
                                models.ForeignKey(
                                    on_delete=django.db.models.deletion.DO_NOTHING,
                                    to='core.Book',
                                ),
                            ),
                        ],
                    ),
                    migrations.AlterField(
                        model_name='book',
                        name='authors',
                        field=models.ManyToManyField(
                            to='core.Author',
                            through='core.AuthorBook',
                        ),
                    ),
                ],
            ),
            migrations.AddField(
                model_name='authorbook',
                name='is_primary',
                field=models.BooleanField(default=False),
            ),
        ]

Changing an unmanaged model to managed
======================================

If you want to change an unmanaged model (:attr:`managed=False
<django.db.models.Options.managed>`) to managed, you must remove
``managed=False`` and generate a migration before making other schema-related
changes to the model, since schema changes that appear in the migration that
contains the operation to change ``Meta.managed`` may not be applied.
