Django why model foreign key cascade will not trigger delete?

there two basic ways to do something when an instance gets deleted:

  1. Overwrite Model.delete
  2. Signal

I used to reckon both of them serve the same purpose, just provides different ways of writing, but works exactly.

However, in this occasion, I realise I was wrong:


class Human(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=20)


class Pet(models.Model):
    name = models.CharField(max_length=20)
    owner = models.ForeignKey(Human, related_name="pet", on_delete=models.CASCADE)

    def delete(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print('------- Pet.delete is called')
        return super().delete(*args, **kwargs)



h = Human(name='jason')
h.save()
p = Pet(name="dog", owner=h)
p.save()

h.delete()
# nothing is shown

Why Pet.delete Is not firing at Human.delete By the foreign cascade? Does I have to apply a signal on this? If so, would it cost more performance?

I am building something very heavy, comment system, filter decent records and delete when the commented target get deleted, the comment model has many null-able foreign key fields, with models.CASCADE Set, only one of them is assigned with value. But in product delete view, I call product.delete Then triggers cascade, but comment.delete Is not firing.

Currently, the project has delete Defined on many models, with assumption that it is always triggered when the instance get removed from database, and it is tremendous work to rewrite it in signal. Is there a way to call delete When at cascading? (I know it is likely impossible since it is a database field specification)

Back to Top