Bug: TypeError in RedisCache.close() when called with signal parameter

[smaccona]

Describe the bug

There's a bug in django-redis where the RedisCache.close() method accepts arbitrary keyword arguments and then passes them directly to self.client.close(), which by default (using DefaultClient) hasn't accepted any arguments since commit c7be6cc (November 1, 2023).

This causes a TypeError when Django's request_finished signal calls the cache's close() method with a signal parameter. My guess is nobody realized this because even though the commit was almost 2 years ago, it was only released in 6.0.0, and the prior release (5.4.0) was in October 1, 2023.

To Reproduce
When running Django under Gunicorn (but I expect other WSGI servers will have this issue too), this happens on every single request (see versions below). It also happens in development when using Django's runserver as a server. Here's what's happening:

1. Django sends the request_finished signal after every request (this has existed in Django since at least version 1.8)
2. The signal includes keyword arguments like signal and sender
3. These are passed to the cache's close() method
4. The cache then passes the same arguments to the cache's client, which by default is DefaultClient, and DefaultClient.close() does not accept any keyword arguments, so we get an error

Expected behavior
I expected to not get an error on every request.

Stack trace

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/gunicorn/workers/sync.py", line 190, in handle_request
    respiter.close()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django/http/response.py", line 335, in close
    signals.request_finished.send(sender=self._handler_class)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django/dispatch/dispatcher.py", line 176, in send
    return [
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django/dispatch/dispatcher.py", line 177, in <listcomp>
    (receiver, receiver(signal=self, sender=sender, **named))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django_redis/cache.py", line 29, in _decorator
    return method(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/django_redis/cache.py", line 182, in close
    self.client.close(**kwargs)
  TypeError: close() got an unexpected keyword argument 'signal'

Environment (please complete the following information):

• Python version: 3.9+
• Django Redis Version: 6.0.0+
• Django Version: 4.2 (but I think this will apply to multiple versions)
• Redis Version: 7.0
• redis-py Version: 6.2.0
• gunicorn Version: 22.0.0 (but I think this will happen in other versions and other WSGI servers also)

Additional context
The issue is in django_redis/cache.py at line 182:

def close(self, **kwargs):
    self.client.close(**kwargs)

The RedisCache.close() method accepts **kwargs but passes them directly to self.client.close(). However, in commit c7be6cc, the DefaultClient.close() method signature changed to not accept any parameters:

def close(self) -> None:
    # ... implementation

Current Workaround

We're currently using this workaround class:

from django_redis.cache import RedisCache

class CompatibleRedisCache(RedisCache):
    """
    Custom Redis cache backend compatible with django-redis 6.0.
    
    Fixes TypeError in close() method when called with signal keyword argument
    by Django's request_finished signal.
    """
    
    def close(self, **kwargs):
        """Close cache connections, ignoring any extra keyword arguments."""
        self.client.close()

Proposed Fix

This is a pretty simple fix. I propose to change line 182 in django_redis/cache.py from:

def close(self, **kwargs):
    self.client.close(**kwargs)

... to:

def close(self, **kwargs):
    self.client.close()

I will open a PR for this change.

[symjoe]

I can confirm this bug and want to add some additional context that might be helpful.

I'm experiencing this exact issue with:

• Django 5.2.6
• django-redis 6.0.0

This regression affects not just Gunicorn but also other deployment scenarios including:

• ASGI servers (uvicorn, etc.)
• Django's development server (runserver)
• Any environment where Django's request_finished signal is properly sent

The issue is indeed the signature change in DefaultClient.close() between versions:

• 5.4.0 (working): def close(self, **kwargs):
• 6.0.0 (broken): def close(self):

This broke backward compatibility with Django's signal system, which has been passing the signal argument to receivers since Django 1.8.

This is a high-severity regression because:

• It breaks every HTTP request in production
• It affects anyone upgrading from 5.4.0 to 6.0.0
• The error occurs in core Django functionality (request lifecycle)

I can confirm that the proposed workaround works. I also agree with @smaccona's proposed fix. The simplest solution is to modify django_redis/cache.py line 182 from self.client.close(**kwargs) to self.client.close()

This maintains backward compatibility while fixing the immediate issue.

Given that this breaks basic functionality for all users upgrading to 6.0.0, I'd suggest this should be addressed in a patch release (6.0.1) as soon as possible.

Thanks for reporting this!