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
31387	Document that BASE_DIR is not a setting	Eric Baumgartner	nobody	"BASE_DIR appears to be an established setting. The default startapp template defines it.

https://github.com/django/django/blob/master/django/conf/project_template/project_name/settings.py-tpl

And third-party apps like django_extensions rely on BASE_DIR being set.

However, the main settings documentation page does not mention BASE_DIR at all.

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/settings/

This led to confusion in the following case:

- Working with a legacy project that started around django 0.9.6 and has never defined BASE_DIR, to no apparent ill effect.
- While using django_extensions, an exception is raised ('Settings' object has no attribute 'BASE_DIR').
- Think: ""Ok, that's fine, just need to define it, it's probably a newer setting.""
- Go to django docs to see the definition of BASE_DIR. Find nothing!
- Now confused. Is BASE_DIR unofficial? Why is django_extensions relying on a non-standard setting?

It would be nice if BASE_DIR could be added to the settings documentation to resolve this confusion."	Cleanup/optimization	closed	Documentation	3.0	Normal	needsinfo			Unreviewed	0	0	0	0	0	0