python - What is the difference between static files and media files in Django?

Question

I'm moving to Django 1.3 and find this separation of media and static files a bit confusing. Here is how default settings.py looks like:

# 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/'

What should I put into MEDIA_ROOT and a STATIC_ROOT? Should those be separate directories? What is the difference?

Answer 1

Static files are meant for javascript/images etc, but media files are for user-uploaded content.