Missing crucial info in Apache conf (httpd.conf) to serve static files

[rschuon@…]

Your page: ​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/howto/deployment/modwsgi/

To get Apache to be able to serve files statically, the handler (mod-wsgi, or uWSGI) must be disabled for those folders. So, you need another directive under the ones you list, that looks like this:

<Location /static>
        SetHandler default-handler
</Location>

I believe the /static location directive must occur after the / Location directive to turn the handler off correctly.
This allows the request to be caught by Apache rather than uWSGI, and redirected to the static file folder.

Also, the line:

Alias /static/ /usr/local/wsgi/static/

Should actually look like this:

Alias /static /usr/local/wsgi/static/

Without the trailing slash on the alias.

[Melvyn Sopacua]

Replying to rschuon@…:

Also, the line:

Alias /static/ /usr/local/wsgi/static/

Should actually look like this:

Alias /static /usr/local/wsgi/static/

Without the trailing slash on the alias.

That's incorrect. It should have the slash. Read up on mod_speling if you want a directory listing without having to type an extra slash, but the correct way is to map the trailing slash to the directory.

[Luke Plant]

For 1.4/master the page to change is now this one: ​https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.4/howto/deployment/wsgi/modwsgi/

[Tim Graham]

I'm not an expert in Apache configuration, but I'm not sure this ticket is valid, or at least there's some clarification that needs to be added. I have Django mod_wsgi sites that serve static files just fine using what's currently in the docs. In fact, the suggestion seems to contradict the mod_wsgi docs:

Note that there is never a need to use SetHandler to reset the Apache content handler back to 'None' for URLs mapped to static files. That this is a requirement for mod_python is a short coming in mod_python, do not do the same thing for mod_wsgi.

​http://code.google.com/p/modwsgi/wiki/ConfigurationGuidelines#Hosting%5FOf%5FStatic%5FFiles

[Claude Paroz]

Quotation added by Timo explains why the Location directive seems not necessary.

About the Alias issue, here is what Apache2 docs have to say:

    Note that if you include a trailing / on the URL-path then the server will require a 
    trailing / in order to expand the alias. That is, if you use

    Alias /icons/ /usr/local/apache/icons/

    then the url /icons will not be aliased, as it lacks that trailing /. Likewise, if
    you omit the slash on the URL-path then you must also omit it from the file-path.

​http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/en/mod/mod_alias.html#alias

So both are possible and produce slightly different behaviour when the request is exactly "/static", which appears to be a corner case anyway (and if APPEND_SLASH is True, that will probably redirect to "/static/"). I think that the slash-ending version will suit most configurations very well and I suggest to not change it.