Async management command support

[James Pic]

Currently, a management command with async def handle will fail for "coroutine was never awaited".

[James Pic]

Patch: ​https://github.com/django/django/pull/13190

[Carlton Gibson]

Hi James.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to say wontfix here: there's no need for async management commands. If a management command needs to run async code, for which, of course, there may be a need, asyncio.run() is the perfect approach. (I see you note that as the workaround on the PR.) It's just not worth any complexity to be able to handle top level async def handle methods directly. '

I hope that makes sense.

[James Pic]

Well I'm not to judge if it makes sense, time & users will tell ;)

[James Pic]

Just for the update: it seems both async and non async middlewares will be supported by Django: ​https://forum.djangoproject.com/t/the-trouble-with-middleware/19/11

So, if management commands would support both then it wouldn't be inconsistent.

[Carlton Gibson]

Hi James. There's a fundamental difference between middlewares, which sit squarely on the request-response pathway, and need to be async capable if we're to leverage the full potential of that, on the one hand, and management commands, which are called one-by-one from the command line most usually, on the other. A management can use async code, in which can asyncio.run() is fine, but there's no demonstrated need for the top-level handle() entry point to itself be async capable. There's no concurrency need for management commands. ("Au contraire mon ami" -- fine, use multiprocessing if you insist, but there's nothing that's worth adding complexity to the main entry point here for.)