The development environment i’m using right now requires that we use a slightly older version of django than the current svn checkout I had installed on my machine. I went searching around for what people do when they have multiple versions of django they need to run, and came across a simple script written by Patrick Altman.
I figure a lot of people, like me, have to switch not just between different revisions of django, but between a vendor branch and a main branch. So, I added in a vendor branch option, cleaned it up a little bit, and stuck it in my bin/ directory. To switch to the our vendor branch, I can now type
~$ djangoswitch.sh vendor
To go back to the main branch checkout, i’d then type
~$ djangoswitch.sh main
For a specific revision number,
~$ djangoswitch.sh main 9000will do the trick.
The script accomplishes its task by removing the existing version of django, checking out the version you requested, and then updating the appropriate symlinks for the django python module and the django-admin command. Ultimately, if you’re frequently switching between the same two versions of django (ie, django current and your company’s vendor branch, for example), then it might make more sense to leave the code and just switch your symlinks. But i dont actually switch that often, django isnt that big, and this will ensure my main branch checkouts are up-to-date. so, this will do just fine for now.
The text of the script is below, and you can download it here. Thanks to Patrick for doing most of the thinking 
.
#!/bin/bash # script to change between different versions of django by removing # and installing a different checkout. also supports a vendor # branch. # usage: specify vendor or main on the command line, optionally giving # a revision number if checking out from main: # djangoswitch [vendor | main [revision]] # your machine-specific paths DJANGOPATH=/home/jessy/svnCheckouts/django # make sure this exists. SITEPACKAGES=/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages VENDORBRANCH=http://YOUR/VENDOR/BRANCH/GOES/HERE # you shouldnt need to change this unless django changes their svn url. DJANGOSVN=http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk/django if [ -z "${1}" ] then echo 'usage: djangoswitch [vendor | main [revision]]' exit fi if [ "${1}" == 'vendor' ] then echo 'switching to vendor branch' CHECKOUT=$VENDORBRANCH elif [ "${1}" == 'main' ] then CHECKOUT=$DJANGOSVN echo 'switching to django main branch' else echo 'usage: djangoswitch [vendor | main [revision]]' exit fi # set up the revision number. we really only care about the revision number # for the main branch checkouts, but set up the variable for the # vendor checkout anyway so the code below can be generic. if [ -n "${2}" ] then REV=$2 else REV=$(svn info $CHECKOUT | grep "Revision:" | sed 's/Revision: //') fi # be informative echo 'checking out revision' $REV 'from' $CHECKOUT # get ride of the old version, checkout the new version, and create # necessary symlinks. rm -rf $DJANGOPATH/$REV svn co -r $REV $CHECKOUT $DJANGOPATH/$REV sudo rm -rf $SITEPACKAGES/django # these might or might not exist. suppress the error messages if they # dont. sudo rm /usr/bin/django-admin* 2>/dev/null sudo rm /usr/local/bin/django-admin* 2>/dev/null sudo ln -s $DJANGOPATH/$REV/ $SITEPACKAGES/django sudo ln -s $DJANGOPATH/$REV/bin/django-admin.py /usr/local/bin/django-admin echo 'Symlinks updated' echo "Switch completed."
