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jazzband / django-downloadview

Serve files with Django.
https://django-downloadview.readthedocs.io
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Difference between apache and lighttpd x-sendfile backends #129

Open pkaczynski opened 8 years ago

pkaczynski commented 8 years ago

I think the documentation about x-sendfile for Apache and lighttpd has some wrong code imports, for example:

Then set django_downloadview.apache.XSendfileMiddleware as DOWNLOADVIEW_BACKEND:

END backend

Then, the code is a bit confusing. How is the lighttpd backend different than apache for x-sendfile? The code for django_downloadview.lighttpd.XSendfileMiddleware is quite identical to django_downloadview.apache.XSendfileMiddleware. Are there any other differences?

The reason I'm asking is that I tried to make media files private (i.e. accessible only by Djnago authenticated users) but accessed through lighttpd (like all static files, but static files are not "private") while Django is served by Apache with mod_wsgi. Is such configuration actually possible?

benoitbryon commented 8 years ago

I think the documentation about x-sendfile for Apache and lighttpd has some wrong code imports

True! Thanks for the report @pkaczynski :)

Cause: includes in Sphinx using "lines" Consequence: when external file changes, docs need to be changed too. Hard to check and maintain. Hypothese: we'd better use :start-after: and :end-before: instead of :lines:. See literalinclude documentation.

pkaczynski commented 8 years ago

np.

Can you elaborate anything on my question about dual private media serving (apache and lighttpd)?

benoitbryon commented 8 years ago

How is the lighttpd backend different than apache for x-sendfile? The code for django_downloadview.lighttpd.XSendfileMiddleware is quite identical to django_downloadview.apache.XSendfileMiddleware. Are there any other differences?

I think code for Apache and Lighttpd is the same, except the names.

As far as I remember, I duplicated code because Apache and Lighttpd could move apart and I was not sure factorization was a good option. That said, I'm nginx user so I don't have much experience with Apache or Lighttpd. Feedback and contribs are welcome!

benoitbryon commented 8 years ago

The reason I'm asking is that I tried to make media files private (i.e. accessible only by Djnago authenticated users) but accessed through lighttpd (like all static files, but static files are not "private") while Django is served by Apache with mod_wsgi. Is such configuration actually possible?

I'm not sure I understood this question... Do you mean:

What I know is possible:

At the moment, I don't know if we can mix Apache and Lighttpd.

benoitbryon commented 8 years ago

Maybe a sequence diagram could help understand each other (may improve documentation too):

Here is the classic (the one I know) sequence: (edited via websequencediagrams.com)

client->Apache: GET /files/sample/
Apache->Django: GET /files/sample/
note over Django: Django checks permissions on media/sample.pdf
Django->Apache: X-Sendfile media/sample.pdf\n(lightweight response,\nfile not loaded into memory)
Apache->client: sample.pdf\n(Apache actually streams the file contents)

Can you explain your use case using such a diagram?

benoitbryon commented 8 years ago

Here are notes about fixing the django-downloadview/lighttpd docs: