blog.dir should not require the use of php to serve large files

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

On MS installs, files are uploaded to:

blog.dir/site_id/files/path/file.ext

We then use a rewrite rule to pass these things through WP, which uses php to read the file. in addition to introducing performance problems with large files (as anyone who wrote an access-restriction script knows all too well), this makes absolutely no sense.

a much more rational approach to do the same thing would upload them in:

blog.dir/site_host[/base_dir]/path/file.ext

we could then use a simple rewrite rule to serve the files without even loading php, i.e.:

RewriteRule /files/ /wp-content/files/%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L]

... with the additional benefit of being able to add .htaccess files and the like in individual blog folders.

That isn't compatible with existing installs.

This was more or less addressed by #19235. Recommending close.

Duplicate of #19235.