docs: document Apache static-vs-Django routing (robots.txt & sitemap.xml) - #1311
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…xml) Records a non-obvious server behavior discovered while shipping the sitemap (#1252): Apache serves real files directly and only proxies to Django for paths with no matching file. So /robots.txt is the static repo-root file (edit it to change crawler rules), /sitemap.xml is dynamic (Django), Django sees requests as http (sitemap pins protocol=https), and the test host is noindex'd by an Apache X-Robots-Tag header. Added under Server Configuration in DEPLOYMENT.md + TOC entry. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Refs #1252. Documentation-only.
While shipping the sitemap, we discovered a non-obvious server behavior worth recording: Apache serves real files directly and only proxies to Django for paths with no matching file. This explains why
/robots.txtis a static file (the repo-rootrobots.txt) while/sitemap.xmlis dynamic (Django), and why the sitemap must pinprotocol = "https"(Apache terminates TLS, so Django seeshttp).Adds a "Static Files vs. Dynamic Requests (Apache routing)" subsection under Server Configuration in
docs/DEPLOYMENT.md(plus a TOC entry) covering:/robots.txt→ static repo-root file; edit it to change crawler rules / the advertised sitemap./sitemap.xml→ dynamic viadjango.contrib.sitemaps.http(TLS terminated at Apache) → build absolute URLs ashttpsexplicitly.noindex'd via an ApacheX-Robots-Tagheader.No code change.
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