I have set up files under private filesystem (large tree of dirs and files). Drupal does not know anything about those files, because they are not added by file upload field, but links are manually defined as strings (in special field in content type), and put in place with ftp.
Also, path to those files are not completely contained within string, but constructed in field--field_myfiled.tpl.php (some taxonomy magic adds parts of the path, so in actual string i have only filename).
Now, adding just system/files/ before link constructed in field--field_myfiled.tpl.php returns privilege errors, so I guess i need to tell Drupal somehow to allow downloading these files. I am not sure - could I use hook_file_download
in this case, and how I could implement this or simmilar function or approach to give access to those files ?
EDIT: My latest findings are that it seems that hook_file_download is triggered whenever you try to access a valid link to a file in private filesystem. No need for anything except hook_file_download here!