fp = open("/django/server/settings.py") key = "" for line in fp: if line.startswith("SECRET_KEY"): key = line.split(" ")[2] break fp.close() with open('/django/config/settings.py', 'r') as file: data = file.readlines() for i, line in enumerate(data): if line.startswith("SECRET_KEY"): data[i] = "{} = {}".format("SECRET_KEY", key) break with open('/django/config/settings.py', 'w') as file: file.writelines(data)