django and python manage.py runserver execution error

Question

When I execute python manage.py runserver command for my django_test projects I get following error:

System check identified no issues (0 silenced).
June 14, 2015 - 20:43:03
Django version 1.8.2, using settings 'django_test.settings'
Starting development server at http://127.0.0.1:8000/
Quit the server with CONTROL-C.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "manage.py", line 10, in <module>
    execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 338, in execute_from_command_line
    utility.execute()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 330, in execute
    self.fetch_command(subcommand).run_from_argv(self.argv)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 390, in run_from_argv
    self.execute(*args, **cmd_options)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 49, in execute
    super(Command, self).execute(*args, **options)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 441, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 88, in handle
    self.run(**options)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/core/management/commands/runserver.py", line 97, in run
    autoreload.main(self.inner_run, None, options)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 323, in main
    reloader(wrapped_main_func, args, kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 289, in python_reloader
    reloader_thread()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 265, in reloader_thread
    change = fn()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 190, in inotify_code_changed
    update_watch()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/django/utils/autoreload.py", line 184, in update_watch
    wm.add_watch(path, mask)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyinotify.py", line 1903, in add_watch
    exclude_filter)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyinotify.py", line 1822, in __add_watch
    wd = self._inotify_wrapper.inotify_add_watch(self._fd, path, mask)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyinotify.py", line 150, in inotify_add_watch
    return self._inotify_add_watch(fd, pathname, mask)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/pyinotify.py", line 245, in _inotify_add_watch
    return self._libc.inotify_add_watch(fd, pathname, mask)
ctypes.ArgumentError: argument 2: <type 'exceptions.TypeError'>: expected CString instance instead of c_char_Array_64

I have never had this problem before and my code always worked fine until I moved the project from one laptop to the other and can not execute it here.

Originaly, it worked fine but the system crashed and it is first time when I am trying to run the code on the new machine. I use virtualenv so I would expect everything to work smoothly but it does not ...

Is it a problem with python itself ?

Answer 1

It looks like you're running against the system version of python on the new laptop, rather than the virtualenv, so it is probably a different version. You can check this by looking at the version of Python on the virtualenv in the old laptop and the new laptop with python --version - I've seen this error happen in this case to people before.

Your best bet is to create a new virtualenv on the new laptop, and reinstall your packages (hopefully, you have a requirements.txt handy). If you need the same version of Python on the new laptop, you'll have to explore getting that version installed on your new laptop (do not overwrite the system version!), and pointing your virtualenv to the install. Good luck.