django file upload: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/static'

Question

I am trying to upload several files in django. On my local maching where I use the djangos build in server everything works fine but on my productivity server I get this error:

[Errno 13] Permission denied: '/static'

There are many questions about this issue but nothing I found worked for me. In my case it has nothing to do with file permissions. I found out that the problem is that django want save the files in the root folder of my filesystem and not in the root folder of my website. If I create the folder in '/static' the files will be created there but images for example are not shown on the webpage because django expects them in '/var/www/webpage-root/static/...'

I use a model to store files:

class Document(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100, blank=True, null=False)
    document = models.FileField(upload_to='static/bachelor/documents/', max_length=500, blank=True, null=True)

and save them in this way:

if form.is_valid():
    data = request.FILES['document']
    doc = Document(document=data)
    doc.save()

As described there: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/http/file-uploads/

I use Apache and mod_wsgi. The apache file looks like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName webpage.de
    ServerAlias www.webpage.de
    DocumentRoot /var/www/webpage

    Alias /media /var/www/webpage/webpage/
    Alias /static /var/www/webpage/static/

    <Directory /var/www/webpage>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

    WSGIScriptAlias / /var/www/webpage/apache/webpage.wsgi
    <Directory /var/www/webpage>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/webpage-error.log

    # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
    # alert, emerg.
    LogLevel warn

    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/webpage-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

The settings file of my website:

# Absolute filesystem path to the directory that will hold user-uploaded files.
# Example: "/var/www/example.com/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = ''

# URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://example.com/media/", "http://media.example.com/"
MEDIA_URL = ''

# Absolute path to the directory static files should be collected to.
# Don't put anything in this directory yourself; store your static files
# in apps' "static/" subdirectories and in STATICFILES_DIRS.
# Example: "/var/www/example.com/static/"
STATIC_ROOT = ''

# URL prefix for static files.
# Example: "http://example.com/static/", "http://static.example.com/"
STATIC_URL = '/static/'

# Additional locations of static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = (
    '/var/www/website/static/',
    '/home/michael/Development/website/static/',
    # Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
    # Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
    # Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
)

# List of finder classes that know how to find static files in
# various locations.
STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
    # 'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
)

I had to set two different paths in STATICFILES_DIRS because I already had problems to serve static files on my server. With this two lines I can serve static files on both ends, on my development machine and my public server runnig apache.

Did I miss something in my configuration or is there something wrong? I dont know why apache wants upload the files in /static instead of /var/www/website/static but I think it can be because of a problem with my apache configuration...

Has anyone an idea or can help me please?

Thank you much

Answer 1

Your Apache configuration for the uploaded media:

Alias /media /var/www/webpage/webpage/

is not in-sync with your Django settings:

# Absolute filesystem path to the directory that will hold user-uploaded files.
# Example: "/var/www/example.com/media/"
MEDIA_ROOT = ''

# URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
# trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://example.com/media/", "http://media.example.com/"
MEDIA_URL = ''

Based on your Apache configuration you should have MEDIA_ROOT = '/var/www/webpage/webpage/' and MEDIA_URL = '/media/'.

Answer 2

You need to change the ownership of the static folder. With root user try "sudo chown -R yourusername:yourgroupname /projectfolder/static".