Even better than gitignoring your local_settings - Save your local settings as settings_local.py.exmp and then ln -s settings_local.py.exmp settings_local

Even better than gitignoring your local_settings - Save your local settings as settings_local.py.exmp and then ln -s settings_local.py.exmp settings_local.py Giving you working local settings, and a versioned copy of them, that is useless unless linked properly.