This is how I kinda wished django migrations would work.

gistfile1.txt

$ git checkout master
Already on 'master'
$ django-admin.py migrate
Error: Cannot migrate in a dirty state
$ git commit -am "Added migration to remove blog entry's pub_month and pub_day fields."
$ django-admin.py tag_migration add_column_to_foo # tags a migration identifier using git-tag
$ django-admin.py migrate
last known sha: c39168d21bb27754737a1036a50f57687cf6ae56

new migrations found between c39168..HEAD:

1) 6e0768 add_pub_date_field_to_blog_entry
2) 9ba9f3 migrate_blog_entry_month_and_day_to_pub_date
3) b6a0ac remove_blog_month_and_day_field

Running migrations...

[F] add_pub_date_field_to_blog_entry
[F] migrate_blog_entry_month_and_day_to_pub_date
[F] remove_blog_month_and_day_field

Ran 3 migrations c39168..HEAD

# Awesome, but now I have to work on this other branch with a different schema.
# This branch has its own migrations since it diverged with master.
$ git checkout feature/timestamped-entries
Switched to branch "feature/timestamped-entries"

# Migrate by finding the last migration in the database that is found by 
# listing out the migration tags.  Database will have information on the 
# last run migrations. Using that, the migrator traverses back up the history
# until it finds a sha that matches what is in the database...this is the last
# know migration
$ django-admin.py migrate
last known sha: c39168d21bb27754737a1036a50f57687cf6ae56

new migrations found between c39168..HEAD:

1) b8c2a1 add_timestamp_field_to_blog_entry
2) 1be2c8 migrate_blog_entry_month_and_day_to_pub_date
3) dea198 remove_blog_month_and_day_field

Last migration run: remove_blog_month_and_day_field

# Traversing back to last know migration and then forward to new state.

[R] remove_blog_month_and_day_field
[R] migrate_blog_entry_month_and_day_to_pub_date
[R] add_pub_date_field_to_blog_entry
[F] add_timestamp_field_to_blog_entry
[F] migrate_blog_entry_month_and_day_to_pub_date
[F] remove_blog_month_and_day_field

This would eliminate the need for a frozen orm and allow use of model and manager methods. Also, no need to explicitly state dependencies because commit order enforces that for you.