Django static files stop working if turn on debug

Question

urlpatterns = patterns('',
    # Examples:
    url(r'^$', 'core.views.homepage', name='homepage'),
    url(r'^static/(?P<path>.*)$', 'django.views.static.serve', {'document_root': settings.STATIC_ROOT}),
)

That's my urls.py

The static file works if I disable the DEBUG, and doesn't work If I turn it back on.

Part of my settings

STATIC_ROOT = os.path.join(PROJECT_ROOT, 'static')

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

# URL prefix for admin static files -- CSS, JavaScript and images.
# Make sure to use a trailing slash.
# Examples: "http://foo.com/static/admin/", "/static/admin/".
ADMIN_MEDIA_PREFIX = '/static/admin/'

# Additional locations of static files
STATICFILES_DIRS = (

    # 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',
)

Really strange to me, can anyone help?

Answer 1

No, STATIC_ROOT is not served by Django ever. In production (debug off), it is expected that your web server will serve this directory directly. In development (debug on), you shouldn't have this directory or anything in it, anyways.

Let me say that again for emphasis. You are never supposed to directly save any assets in STATIC_ROOT. This directory is solely for the output from the collectstatic management command. All assets in your project are supposed to be saved in the static directory of the particular app it belongs to.

Now, of course, you'll often have assets that are not directly related to a single app, but rather your entire project as a whole. For this scenario, you create a separate directory in your project and place all common assets there. You then add this directory to the STATICFILES_DIRS setting.

In development, Django will serve anything in that directory, and in production, the collectstatic management command will pull assets from that directory into STATIC_ROOT.