is running django syncdb in production, post initial deployment safe?

Question

I read somewhere that you would never run syncdb on a database, post its initial run. Is this true?

I don't see what the problem could be. Do you?

Answer 1

running syncdb will not make changes to tables for any models already in the database (even if you have changed them).

for managing changes to models, consider south

Answer 2

Syncdb will create tables that don't exist, but not modify existing tables. So it's fairly safe to run in production. But it's not a reliable way to maintain a database schema. Look at the South package for a way to reliably maintain changes to your database schema between development and production. Should be part of django standard, IMHO.