How to Create a One-Word Command to Start Your Django Server

1 minute of reading

You can create a custom shell command (like a one-word alias) to run your Django server with your virtual environment activated. Here’s how to do it step-by-step:

✅ 1. Create a Script File

Make a small shell script, for example:

bashCopyEditnano ~/startserver.sh

Paste this inside:

bashCopyEdit#!/bin/bash
cd /full/path/to/your/project/
source venv/bin/activate
cd client_portal/
python3 manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
deactivate

Replace /full/path/to/your/project/ with the actual path to your project folder.

✅ 2. Make It Executable

bashCopyEditchmod +x ~/startserver.sh

✅ 3. Create a One-Word Command

Now add an alias to your .bashrc or .zshrc:

bashCopyEditnano ~/.bashrc

Add this at the bottom:

bashCopyEditalias startserver="~/startserver.sh"

Then reload it:

bashCopyEditsource ~/.bashrc

✅ Now You Can Just Run:

bashCopyEditstartserver

From anywhere in your terminal. Let me know if you want a version that runs in the background or logs output.

Related Posts