Server configurations

All of the bellow examples assume that:

• MEDIA_ROOT is set to /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static/
• MEDIA_URL is set to /media/
• Protected files are stored in two subfolders uploads and downloadables
• Other static files stored in MEDIA_ROOT should be freely downloadable

Apache

If you serve your static content with Apache and have mod_xsendfile you can set PRIVATE_DOWNLOAD_HANDLER to 'private_files.handlers.x_sendfile'. Turn XSendFile on and deny access to the directory where you store your protected files (the value of upload_to appended to MEDIA_ROOT). Here’s an exmple of a vhost configuration with mod_xsendfile and mod_wsgi:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerName django.test
        XSendFile on
        alias /adminmedia/ /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static/
        alias /media/ /home/vasil/src/django-trunk/django/contrib/admin/media/
        WSGIDaemonProcess django-test user=vasil group=users threads=1 processes=5
        WSGIProcessGroup django-test
        WSGIScriptAlias / /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/django.wsgi

        <Directory /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject>
            Order deny,allow
            Allow from all
        </Directory>

        <Directory /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static/uploads>
            Order deny,allow
            Deny from all
        </Directory>

        <Directory /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static/downloadables>
            Order deny,allow
            Deny from all
        </Directory>

        <Directory /home/vasil/src/django-trunk/django/contrib/admin>
            Order deny,allow
            Allow from all
        </Directory>

    ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/test.err.log
</VirtualHost>

Nginx

When using Nginx PRIVATE_DOWNLOAD_HANDLER needs to be set to 'private_files.handlers.x_accel_redirect'. Use the internal directive like in this example:

http {
    include mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile    on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    server {

        listen   80;
        server_name  django.test;

        location /uploads/{
            internal;
            root /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static;
        }

        location /downloadables/{
            internal;
            root /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static;
        }

        location /media/{
            alias /media/psf/Home/Projects/django-private-files/testproject/static/;
        }

        location /media/uploads/ {
            deny all;
        }

        location /media/downloadables/ {
            deny all;
        }

        location / {
            fastcgi_pass   localhost:3033;

            fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_script_name;

            include fastcgi.conf;

            fastcgi_param REQUEST_METHOD $request_method;
            fastcgi_param CONTENT_TYPE $content_type;
            fastcgi_param CONTENT_LENGTH $content_length;
        }
    }