django-admin.py startproject command failed when DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE was set

[devye]

If DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE evvironmental variable was previously set, you cannot run this command to init a project.

$ django-admin.py startproject fbsample
Unknown command: 'startproject'
Type 'django-admin.py help' for usage.
$ django-admin.py help 
Usage: django-admin.py subcommand [options] [args]

Options:
  -v VERBOSITY, --verbosity=VERBOSITY
                        Verbosity level; 0=minimal output, 1=normal output,
                        2=all output
  --settings=SETTINGS   The Python path to a settings module, e.g.
                        "myproject.settings.main". If this isn't provided, the
                        DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable will be
                        used.
  --pythonpath=PYTHONPATH
                        A directory to add to the Python path, e.g.
                        "/home/djangoprojects/myproject".
  --traceback           Print traceback on exception
  --version             show program's version number and exit
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit

Type 'django-admin.py help <subcommand>' for help on a specific subcommand.

Available subcommands:
  cleanup
  compilemessages
  createcachetable
  dbshell
  diffsettings
  dumpdata
  flush
  inspectdb
  loaddata
  makemessages
  reset
  runfcgi
  runserver
  shell
  sql
  sqlall
  sqlclear
  sqlcustom
  sqlflush
  sqlindexes
  sqlinitialdata
  sqlreset
  sqlsequencereset
  startapp
  syncdb
  test
  testserver
  validate

It's been documented here:
​http://thingsilearned.com/2008/12/28/django-adminpy-startproject-unknown-command/

The only workaround should be unsetting DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE:

$ export DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=
$ django-admin.py startproject fbsample
$ ls fbsample
__init__.py  manage.py	settings.py  urls.py

Also, django-admin.py script should document this "startproject" command.

[Karen Tracey]

startproject is documented here: ​http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/django-admin/#startproject-projectname

The behavior of the command being disabled when the environment variable has been set, is also documented there.

django-admin.py does also document startproject, so long as it has not been deleted as a result of having the environment variable set. Changing the script to note that the command has been disabled instead of completely deleting it is covered by #8329.