How to manage local vs production settings in Django?
For most of my projects I use following pattern:

Create settings_base.py where I store settings that are common for all environments 
Whenever I need to use new environment with specific requirements I create new settings file (eg. settings_local.py) which inherits contents of settings_base.py and overrides/adds proper settings variables (from settings_base import *)

(To run manage.py with custom settings file you simply use --settings command option: manage.py <command> --settings=settings_you_wish_to_use.py)
What is the recommended way of handling settings for local development and the production server? Some of them (like constants, etc) can be changed/accessed in both, but some of them (like paths to static files) need to remain different, and hence should not be overwritten every time the new code is deployed.
Currently, I am adding all constants to settings.py. But every time I change some constant locally, I have to copy it to the production server and edit the file for production specific changes... :( 
Edit: looks like there is no standard answer to this question, I've accepted the most popular method.