title: What is the difference between static files and media files in Django?
body: <p>I'm moving to Django 1.3 and find this separation of media and static files a bit confusing. Here is how default <code>settings.py</code> looks like:</p>
  
  <pre><code># Absolute filesystem path to the directory that will hold user-uploaded files.
  # Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/media/"
  MEDIA_ROOT = ''
  
  # URL that handles the media served from MEDIA_ROOT. Make sure to use a
  # trailing slash if there is a path component (optional in other cases).
  # Examples: "http://media.lawrence.com/media/", "http://example.com/media/"
  MEDIA_URL = ''
  
  # Absolute path to the directory that holds static files.
  # Example: "/home/media/media.lawrence.com/static/"
  STATIC_ROOT = ''
  
  # URL that handles the static files served from STATIC_ROOT.
  # Example: "http://media.lawrence.com/static/"
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What should I put into <code>MEDIA_ROOT</code> and a <code>STATIC_ROOT</code>? Should those be separate directories? What is the difference?</p>