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Configuration Overview

Gunicorn reads configuration from five places, in increasing order of priority:

  1. Environment variables, for settings that support them.
  2. Framework-specific configuration (currently Paste Deploy only).
  3. A Python configuration file gunicorn.conf.py (default in the working directory).
  4. The GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS environment variable.
  5. Command-line arguments.

If a configuration file is provided both via GUNICORN_CMD_ARGS and the CLI, only the file specified on the command line is used.

Note

Print the fully resolved configuration:

bash gunicorn --print-config APP_MODULE 

Validate configuration and exit:

```bash
gunicorn --check-config APP_MODULE

This is also a quick way to confirm that your application can start. 

## Command line

Options set on the command line override framework settings and values from the
configuration file. Not every setting has a command-line flag; run

```bash
gunicorn -h

for the complete list. The CLI also exposes --version, which is not part of the main settings reference.

Configuration file

Provide a Python file (for example gunicorn.conf.py). Gunicorn executes the file on every start or reload, so any valid Python is allowed:

import multiprocessing

bind = "127.0.0.1:8000"
workers = multiprocessing.cpu_count() * 2 + 1

Every configuration key is documented in the settings reference.

Framework settings

At present only Paste Deploy applications expose framework-specific settings. If you have ideas for Django or other frameworks, open an issue.

Paste applications

Reference Gunicorn as the server in your INI file:

[server:main]
use = egg:gunicorn#main
host = 192.168.0.1
port = 80
workers = 2
proc_name = brim

Gunicorn merges any recognised parameters into the base configuration. Values from the configuration file and command line still override these defaults.