Django post_save preventing recursion without overriding model save()

Don't disconnect signals. If any new model of the same type is generated while the signal is disconnected the handler function won't be fired. Signals are global across Django and several requests can be running concurrently, making some fail while others run their post_save handler.

you can use update instead of save in the signal handler

queryset.filter(pk=instance.pk).update(....)

What you think about this solution?

@receiver(post_save, sender=Article)
def generate_thumbnails(sender, instance=None, created=False, **kwargs):

    if not instance:
        return

    if hasattr(instance, '_dirty'):
        return

    do_something()

    try:
        instance._dirty = True
        instance.save()
    finally:
        del instance._dirty

You can also create decorator

def prevent_recursion(func):

    @wraps(func)
    def no_recursion(sender, instance=None, **kwargs):

        if not instance:
            return

        if hasattr(instance, '_dirty'):
            return

        func(sender, instance=instance, **kwargs)

        try:
            instance._dirty = True
            instance.save()
        finally:
            del instance._dirty

    return no_recursion


@receiver(post_save, sender=Article)
@prevent_recursion
def generate_thumbnails(sender, instance=None, created=False, **kwargs):

    do_something()