Django gettext error when collectstatic - django

Question

I'm trying to run the following command in my Ubuntu server:
./manage.py collectstatic -v 0 --noinput
and I'm getting this error message:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./manage.py", line 10, in <module>
execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 353, in execute_from_command_line
utility.execute()
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 327, in execute
django.setup()
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/__init__.py", line 18, in setup
apps.populate(settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/apps/registry.py", line 115, in populate
app_config.ready()
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/apps.py", line 22, in ready
self.module.autodiscover()
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/admin/__init__.py", line 26, in autodiscover
autodiscover_modules('admin', register_to=site)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/module_loading.py", line 50, in autodiscover_modules
import_module('%s.%s' % (app_config.name, module_to_search))
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/importlib/__init__.py", line 109, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2254, in _gcd_import
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2237, in _find_and_load
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 2226, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1200, in _load_unlocked
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1129, in _exec
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1471, in exec_module
File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 321, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/admin.py", line 7, in <module>
from django.contrib.auth.forms import (
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/forms.py", line 262, in <module>
class SetPasswordForm(forms.Form):
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/forms.py", line 272, in SetPasswordForm
help_text=password_validation.password_validators_help_text_html())
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/password_validation.py", line 85, in password_validators_help_text_html
help_texts = password_validators_help_texts(password_validators)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/password_validation.py", line 76, in password_validators_help_texts
help_texts.append(validator.get_help_text())
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/password_validation.py", line 153, in get_help_text
return _("Your password can't be too similar to your other personal information.")
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/__init__.py", line 85, in ugettext
return _trans.ugettext(message)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 312, in gettext
return do_translate(message, 'gettext')
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 295, in do_translate
_default = _default or translation(settings.LANGUAGE_CODE)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 202, in translation
_translations[language] = DjangoTranslation(language)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 115, in __init__
self._add_local_translations()
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 163, in _add_local_translations
translation = self._new_gnu_trans(localedir)
File "/home/ubuntu/.virtualenvs/project/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/utils/translation/trans_real.py", line 137, in _new_gnu_trans
fallback=use_null_fallback)
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/gettext.py", line 428, in translation
t = _translations.setdefault(key, class_(fp))
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/gettext.py", line 162, in __init__
self._parse(fp)
File "/usr/lib/python3.4/gettext.py", line 241, in _parse
magic = unpack('<I', buf[:4])[0]
struct.error: unpack requires a bytes object of length 4
What could it be? The error seems quite unrelated.

Answer 1

Seems like you have an empty django.mo file (.mo files are those that contain translations). Consider removing it, or re-creating it or or re-installing Django.
I figured it out because:
the problem was raised by gettext;
the exception was raised while parsing the header of the file; and
the exception is about a bytestring that is too short (possibly empty).