The absolute path to the directory where
./manage.py collectstaticwill collect static files for deployment. Example:STATIC_ROOT="/var/www/example.com/static/"
now the command ./manage.py collectstatic will copy all the static files(ie in static folder in your apps, static files in all paths) to the directory /var/www/example.com/static/. now you only need to serve this directory on apache or nginx..etc.
The
URLof which the static files inSTATIC_ROOTdirectory are served(by Apache or nginx..etc). Example:/static/orhttp://static.example.com/
If you set STATIC_URL = 'http://static.example.com/', then you must serve the STATIC_ROOT folder (ie "/var/www/example.com/static/") by apache or nginx at url 'http://static.example.com/'(so that you can refer the static file '/var/www/example.com/static/jquery.js' with 'http://static.example.com/jquery.js')
Now in your django-templates, you can refer it by:
{% load static %}
<script src="{% static "jquery.js" %}"></script>
which will render:
<script src="http://static.example.com/jquery.js"></script>