Base structure of a django management command, use transaction to rollback every change if an exception is raised and track time of execution.

command_name.py

import sys
import traceback

from django.utils import timezone
from django.db import transaction
from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError


# django will strip new lines split helptext in 80 char lines
HELP_TEXT = """
An explanation of the command puorpose, that will be printent when
$ ./manage.py help command_name
is called
"""


class Command(BaseCommand):
    help = HELP_TEXT
    _start_time = None

    def add_arguments(self, parser):
        parser.add_argument('--argument_name', type=str, default='default_value', help='Description of the argument')

    def handle(self, *args, **options):
        try:
            with transaction.atomic():
                self.stdout.write('Starting command execution')
                self._start_time = timezone.now()

                # command body

                self.stdout.write("Command execution completed successifly in {0}\n".format(self.elapsed_time()))
        except Exception as e:  # noqa
            exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback = sys.exc_info()
            formatted_excption = traceback.format_exception(exc_type, exc_value, exc_traceback)
            for line in formatted_excption:
                self.stdout.write(line, ending='')
            raise CommandError("An exception occurred. All operations aborted, database rolled back.\n")

    def elapsed_time(self):
        if self._start_time is None:
            return None
        return timezone.now() - self._start_time