[DEPR]: Setting SERVICE_VARIANT via environment variable #37847
Description
RFC Start Date
N/A -- Already Accepted
Target Plan Accepted Date
N/A -- Already Accepted
Target Transition Unblocked Date
Immediately -- Transition Already Unblocked
Earliest Breaking Changes Unblocked Date
2026-01-08
Rationale
As part of an effort to simplify settings in the platform, it has been decided to set SERVICE_VARIANT to 'cms' in cms/envs/common.py and to 'lms' in lms/envs/common.py, rather than setting this value from the environment. In the past, the values for SERVICE_VARIANT varied, but now in practice they are just 'cms' and 'lms'.
This change removes the ambiguity that exists from older usage patterns of SERVICE_VARIANT, and makes usage of this setting more reliable.
Description
The SERVICE_VARIANT has previously been set in [cms/lms]/envs/common.py by first checking if there is an environment variable set with the same name. If it is set, that value is used, if not the values 'cms' or 'lms' are used.
Now the setting will be set to 'cms' in cms/envs/common.py and to 'lms' in lms/envs/common.py regardless of any environment variable set.
Setting the SERVICE_VARIANT environment variable will have no effect on the value of the SERVICE_VARIANT setting value. It will now purely be a function of which DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE is being used (as this will determine if cms/envs/common.py or lms/envs/common.py is imported and executed).