id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc	stage	has_patch	needs_docs	needs_tests	needs_better_patch	easy	ui_ux
24298	post-migrate handlers fail when DATABASES['default'] = {}	Thomas Recouvreux	Markus Holtermann	"On Django 1.7.4 the management command `migrate --database=xxx` fails when `DATABASES['default'] = {}` with `django.core.exceptions.ImproperlyConfigured: settings.DATABASES is improperly configured. Please supply the ENGINE value. Check settings documentation for more details.`.
On Django 1.7.3 it works fine.

To reproduct the problem:

1. Create a new project
2. Edit the settings.py this way:


{{{
DATABASES = {
    'default': {},
    'mysite': {
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'NAME': os.path.join(BASE_DIR, 'db_mysite.sqlite3'),
    }
}
}}}

3. Run `python manage.py migrate --database=mysite`

Problem:

It seems Django tries to access the default connection. I found `django.db.migrations.loader.is_latest_migration_applied` uses the default connection.


I am attaching an output log of the command.
Here is a sample project to reproduce the behaviour: https://github.com/trecouvr/test_dj_migrate_174.
"	Bug	closed	Migrations	1.7	Release blocker	fixed	migrate post_migrate		Accepted	0	0	0	0	1	0