title: STATIC_URL undefined in base Django template
body: <p>I have a template, <code>base.html</code>, which is used in several other templates for various views. Each of those templates starts with the appropriate <code>{% extends "base.html" %}</code>. In the base template, I want to specify a static stylesheet thusly:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="{{ STATIC_URL }}/base.css"/&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>However, when it renders most of my templates, the value of <code>STATIC_URL</code> is empty, so the attribute is merely <code>href="/base.css"</code>, which doesn't load. The variable is properly defined for the template that I have tied to the default login view, <code>django.contrib.auth.views.login</code>, but for my own custom views, it's undefined.</p>
  
  <p>I am just trying to get this working in the development environment with <code>runserver</code>, so the CSS file is in the static subdirectory of the app.</p>
  
  <p>Here are the relevant bits from my <code>settings.py</code>, which are all the defaults:</p>
  
  <pre><code># URL prefix for static files.
  # Example: "http://media.lawrence.com/static/"
  STATIC_URL = '/static/'
  
  # Additional locations of static files
  STATICFILES_DIRS = (
      # Put strings here, like "/home/html/static" or "C:/www/django/static".
      # Always use forward slashes, even on Windows.
      # Don't forget to use absolute paths, not relative paths.
  )
  
  # List of finder classes that know how to find static files in
  # various locations.
  STATICFILES_FINDERS = (
      'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.FileSystemFinder',
      'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.AppDirectoriesFinder',
  #    'django.contrib.staticfiles.finders.DefaultStorageFinder',
  )
  
  TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS = (
      'django.core.context_processors.debug',
      'django.core.context_processors.i18n',
      'django.core.context_processors.media',
      'django.core.context_processors.static',
      'django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth',
      'django.contrib.messages.context_processors.messages',
  )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In my <code>urls.py</code> I also have added:</p>
  
  <pre><code>from django.contrib.staticfiles.urls import staticfiles_urlpatterns
  
  #...
  
  urlpatterns += staticfiles_urlpatterns()
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? As far as I can tell this is what you're supposed to do for serving app-specific static files in development, based on <a href="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/howto/static-files/" rel="noreferrer">the 1.3 documentation</a>.</p>