A Debian init script to run one or more FCGI-based Django applications.

django-servers.sh

#! /bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:          FastCGI servers for Django
# Required-Start:    networking
# Required-Stop:     networking
# Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop:      S 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start FastCGI servers with Django.
# Description:       Django, in order to operate with FastCGI, must be started
#                    in a very specific way with manage.py. This must be done
#                    for each DJango web server that has to run.
### END INIT INFO
#
# Author:  Guillermo Fernandez Castellanos
# Version: @(#)fastcgi 0.1 11-Jan-2007 guillermo.fernandez.castellanos AT gmail.com
# Altered by David Reynolds for Debian Stable (http://davidreynolds.me.uk/blog/2007/mar/16/django-fcgi-init-script/)

#### SERVER SPECIFIC CONFIGURATION
export PYTHONPATH=/var/www/django/trunk/:/var/www/django/
DJANGO_SITES="mysite stmarys"
SITES_PATH=/var/www/django
RUNFILES_PATH=$SITES_PATH/run
HOST=127.0.0.1
PORT_START=3033
RUN_AS=www-data
#### DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING AFTER THIS LINE!

set -e

PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DESC="FastCGI servers"
NAME=$0
SCRIPTNAME=/etc/init.d/$NAME

#
#       Function that starts the daemon/service.
#
d_start()
{
    # Starting all Django FastCGI processes
    PORT=$PORT_START
    for SITE in $DJANGO_SITES
    do
        echo -n ", $SITE"
        if [ -f $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid ]; then
            echo -n " already running"
        else
            start-stop-daemon --start \
            --exec /usr/bin/python $SITES_PATH/$SITE/manage.py runfcgi method=threaded \
            host=$HOST port=$PORT pidfile=$RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid --pidfile $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid
            chmod 400 $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid
        fi
        let "PORT = $PORT + 1"
    done
}

#
#       Function that stops the daemon/service.
#
d_stop() {
    # Killing all Django FastCGI processes running
    for SITE in $DJANGO_SITES
    do
        echo -n ", $SITE"
        start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --pidfile $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid \
                          || echo -n " not running"
        if [ -f $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid ]; then
           rm $RUNFILES_PATH/$SITE.pid
        fi
    done
}

ACTION="$1"
case "$ACTION" in
    start)
        echo -n "Starting $DESC: $NAME"
        d_start
        echo "."
        ;;

    stop)
        echo -n "Stopping $DESC: $NAME"
        d_stop
        echo "."
        ;;

    restart|force-reload)
        echo -n "Restarting $DESC: $NAME"
        d_stop
        sleep 1
        d_start
        echo "."
        ;;

    *)
        echo "Usage: $NAME {start|stop|restart|force-reload}" >&2
        exit 3
        ;;
esac

exit 0

lighttpd-vhost.conf

$HTTP["host"] =~ "^(www\.)?example\.com" {
  fastcgi.server = (
    "/mysite.fcgi" => (
      "main" => (
        # Use host / port instead of socket for TCP fastcgi
        "host" => "127.0.0.1",
        "port" => 3033,
        #"socket" => "/home/user/mysite.sock",
        "check-local" => "disable",
      )
    ),
  )

  alias.url = (
    "/media" => "/srv/www/django/mysite/media/",
    "/admin-media" => "/srv/www/django/virtualenvs/mysite/lib/python2.6/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/media/",
  )

  url.rewrite-once = (
    "^(/media.*)$" => "$1",
    "^(/admin-media.*)$" => "$1",
    #"^/favicon\.ico$" => "/media/favicon.ico",
    "^(/.*)$" => "/mysite.fcgi$1",
  )

}

manage.py

#!/usr/bin/env python
import site
try:
    import settings # Assumed to be in the same directory.
except ImportError:
    import sys
    sys.stderr.write("Error: Can't find the file 'settings.py' in the directory containing %r. It appears you've customized things.\nYou'll have to run django-admin.py, passing it your settings module.\n(If the file settings.py does indeed exist, it's causing an ImportError somehow.)\n" % __file__)
    sys.exit(1)

# load virtualenv if set
if settings.VIRTUALENV:
    site.addsitedir(settings.VIRTUALENV)

site.addsitedir(settings.path('apps'))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from django.core.management import execute_manager
    execute_manager(settings)

settings.py

# Django settings.py additions

DEBUG = False # debug in production is evil

VIRTUALENV = "/srv/www/django/virtualenvs/mysite/lib/python2.6/site-packages"

# force removal of mysite.fcgi from URL:
# http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/deployment/fastcgi/#forcing-the-url-prefix-to-a-particular-value
FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME = ''

thanks for sharing:

in manage.py I had to remove Line 14:
site.addsitedir(settings.path('apps'))

to make it work.

Thanks for the hint. Yes, if you do not use an apps/ dir for your django apps, you probably need to remove that.

In Django 1.3.1 I have to use FORCE_SCRIPT_NAME="" in setting.py to get it working. I don't know why but without that Django sends a weird redirect.