[chef] Application_python -- layout of settings files, questions about deploy cookbook

[Liam Kirsher < >]

I'm almost there!  "There" being getting Django running using the Application_python cookbook.
First, I discovered there is a known issue with this: http://tickets.opscode.com/browse/COOK-2570?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=36358#comment-36358

I worked around that by making a link to the actual manage.py  where application_python expected to find the file (/srv/bart/shared/<cached_copy>.  Inelegant, but it works.  However, I still need to tweak the paths a bit for the settings file.  It seems like this is kind of a "deploy" question.

1. I'm having a hard time getting the local_settings.py file placed where I want it.
The deploy path is /srv/bart.  The templatted local_settings.py file gets placed in /srv/bart/shared/.  It is referenced (that is, it needs to be loaded as a module) from /srv/bart/shared/current/bartrendr/settings.py.

2. Also, there are places in the settings.py file in which absolute paths to directories are required, for example, so that collectstatic knows where to look for static files.
For example,

STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    # Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
    # Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
    APP_ROOT + "api/admin/static/",
    APP_ROOT + "api/static/",)

I can set APP_ROOT in the local_settings file, but it's not clear to me how to include the directory created by deploy -- like this?

APP_ROOT = '/srv/bart/shared/current/bartrendr/'

But I'm not sure that will work if the directory is cached-copy and not current. 
I'm assuming there's a better way to do this?

Can anyone point me to an example?

TIA
Liam

-- 
Liam Kirsher
PGP: http://liam.numenet.com/pgp/