Home Accessibility Courses Twitter The Mouth Facebook Resources Site Map About Us Contact
 
For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
What to do if the Home Page is missing

The Web Server Administrator has two choices as to what he / she should do when a content provider doesn't supply a home page (index.html or similar) in a directory - either he can generate an error such as a 403 ("Forbidden") or 404 ("Not found"), or he can generate a directory listing, so that the web site visitor can access the content of the directory anyway.

Question - How does the web site admin turn directory listing on and off?

The Web Server configuration file is usually called httpd.conf, though were you find it varies depending on your operating system and configuration. For a web server installed on a Linux server, as configured on our Linux Web Server and Deploying Apache httpd and Tomcat courses, you'll be looking at /usr/local/apache2/conf.

Find the Options line for the directory in which the directory tree you're interesting in altering is located and add (or remove) Indexes. For example:

<Directory "/home/www/htdocs">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks


allows web directories served from within /home/www/htdocs to display their contents, but

<Directory "/home/www/htdocs">
Options FollowSymLinks


will give anyone who tries a 400 series error.

Question - can the web develop control this too?

Yes, if given such permission by the Web Site Admin. The Web Site Admin need to allow overrides - if the httpd.conf file says

AllowOverride None

then the web developer has no control but it it says either of

AllowOverride Options

or
AllowOverride All

the it CAN be overridden by the web developer ... who would provide a file called .htaccess in the top level directory to which the automatic indeing should apply. The line in that file would be either

Options Indexes

to allow Indexes (only) or

Options +Indexes

To turn indexes on in addition to options inherited from the directory above.

There may be other things in the .htaccess file too, and these files can exist in multiple places on the web site - here's an example of mine that allows a directory listing and turn off any page rewrites too:

RewriteEngine Off
Options Indexes


and here's one which (by contrast) diverts all .html and .htm requests to a script with the undescriptive name 8.php, passing in the name of the page that was called up as a parameter.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.htm 8.php?pagename=index&sharename=$1&%{QUERY_STRING}



Question - is it a good idea to allow automatic indexes?

In general NO. If you leave out the home page from a directory by mistake, you'll be exposing yourself to anyone who visits your web site. When I go to a web site following a link to an obscure page on a domain I don't know, I often "research" the domain by cutting sections off the path. By disallowing, you stop people like me spying around, and perhaps finding backup files (e.g. copies of .php scripts that have a .bak extension) from which I could (but wouldn't!) break holes in your site.

But if you want to make a directory from which people can quickly and easily grab pictures and you're not too worried about it looking pretty, then in these LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES it can be a good idea.

In fact I have turned in on for one of my directories today - here where you can some some record shots of this morning's breakfast setup, and of Devizes last night.


Note - than answers on this page apply to the Apache httpd web server, which is used to serve the majority of domains on the web. Options and configuration files differ for other servers.
(written 2008-05-08, updated 2008-05-09)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
W501 - Introduction to Web Site Structure
  [332] Looking up IP addresses - (2005-06-01)
  [528] Getting favicon to work - avoiding common pitfalls - (2005-12-14)
  [1024] Web site - a refresh to improve navigation - (2007-01-07)
  [1031] robots.txt - a clue to hidden pages? - (2007-01-13)
  [1168] Moving out some of the web site bloat - (2007-04-29)
  [1176] A pu that got me into trouble - (2007-05-04)
  [1198] From Web to Web 2 - (2007-05-21)
  [1431] Getting the community on line - some basics - (2007-11-13)
  [1686] FTP - how not to corrupt data (binary v ascii) - (2008-06-24)
  [1969] Search Engines. Getting the right pages seen. - (2009-01-01)
  [2094] If you have a spelling mistake in your URL / page name - (2009-03-21)
  [2214] Global Index to help you find resources - (2009-06-01)
  [2282] Checking robots.txt from Python - (2009-07-12)
  [2552] Web site traffic - real users, or just noise? - (2009-12-26)

A607 - Web Application Deployment - Apache httpd mod_rewrite
  [631] Apache httpd to Tomcat - jk v proxy - (2006-03-03)
  [755] Using different URLs to navigate around a single script - (2006-06-11)
  [934] Clustering, load balancing, mod_rewrite and mod_proxy - (2006-11-21)
  [1006] Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat together tips - (2006-12-24)
  [1009] Passing GET parameters through Apache mod_rewrite - (2006-12-27)
  [1207] Simple but effective use of mod_rewrite (Apache httpd) - (2007-05-27)
  [1376] Choosing between mod_proxy and mod_rewrite - (2007-10-02)
  [1381] Using a MySQL database to control mod_rewrite via PHP - (2007-10-06)
  [1731] Apache httpd, MySQL, PHP - installation procedure - (2008-08-01)
  [1771] More HowTo diagrams - MySQL, Tomcat and Java - (2008-08-24)
  [1778] Pointing all the web pages in a directory at a database - (2008-08-30)
  [1954] mod_rewrite for newcomers - (2008-12-20)
  [2555] Bookkeeping - (2009-12-29)
  [2728] Redirecting a home page using mod_rewrite - (2010-04-17)
  [2768] Carrying a long URL around - looking for memorable shorts - (2010-05-17)
  [2773] Dynamically watching your web site via a PHP wrapper - (2010-05-21)
  [2900] Redirecting a page - silent, temporary or permanent? - (2010-08-03)
  [2981] How to set up short and meaningfull alternative URLs - (2010-10-02)
  [3197] Finding and diverting image requests from rogue domains - (2011-03-08)
  [3339] Simplest ever proxy configuration? - (2011-06-28)
  [3568] Telling which ServerAlias your visitor used - useful during merging domains - (2012-01-04)
  [3753] Adding a passcode to a directory - (2012-06-05)
  [3862] Forwarding a whole domain, except for a few directories - Apache http server - (2012-09-17)

A603 - Web Application Deployment - Further httpd Configuration
  [345] Spotting a denial of service attack - (2005-06-12)
  [466] Separating 'per instance' data from binaries and web sites - (2005-10-16)
  [526] Apache httpd - serving web documents from different directories - (2005-12-12)
  [550] 2006 - Making business a pleasure - (2006-01-01)
  [649] Denial of Service ''attack'' - (2006-03-17)
  [662] An unhelpful error message from Apache httpd - (2006-03-30)
  [853] To list a directory under httpd on a web server, or not? - (2006-09-02)
  [1080] httpd.conf or .htaccess? - (2007-02-14)
  [1121] Sharing the load with Apache httpd and perhaps Tomcat - (2007-03-29)
  [1351] Compressing web pages sent out from server. Is it worth it? - (2007-09-14)
  [1355] .php or .html extension? Morally Static Pages - (2007-09-17)
  [1377] Load Balancing with Apache mod_jk (httpd/Tomcat) - (2007-10-02)
  [1551] Which modules are loaded in my Apache httpd - (2008-02-23)
  [1554] Online hotel reservations - Melksham, Wiltshire (near Bath) - (2008-02-24)
  [1564] Default file (MiMe types) for Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat - (2008-03-04)
  [1566] Strange behaviour of web directory requests without a trailing slash - (2008-03-06)
  [1619] User and Group settings for Apache httpd web server - (2008-04-22)
  [1707] Configuring Apache httpd - (2008-07-12)
  [1762] WEB-INF (Tomcat) and .htaccess (httpd) - (2008-08-20)
  [1767] mod_proxy and mod_proxy_ajp - httpd - (2008-08-22)
  [1939] mod_proxy_ajp and mod_proxy_balancer examples - (2008-12-13)
  [1955] How to avoid duplicating web page maintainance - (2008-12-20)
  [1974] Moving a directory on your web site - (2009-01-03)
  [2060] Database connection Pooling, SSL, and command line deployment - httpd and Tomcat - (2009-03-01)
  [2272] Monitoring and loading tools for testing Apache Tomcat - (2009-07-07)
  [2478] How did I do THAT? - (2009-10-26)
  [3133] An image from a website that occasionally comes out as hyroglyphics - (2011-01-14)
  [3449] Apache Internal Dummy Connection - what is it and what should I do with it? - (2011-09-19)
  [3635] Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_STRING on brand new web site - why? - (2012-03-03)
  [3955] Building up from a small PHP setup to an enterprise one - (2012-12-16)
  [4001] Helping search engines with appropriate 400 error codes - (2013-02-11)
  [4307] Identifying and clearing denial of service attacks on your Apache server - (2014-09-27)


Back to
Spring in Devizes
Previous and next
or
Horse's mouth home
Forward to
Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so.
Some other Articles
Walking on The Wiltshire Downs
Minehead Marauder
Pictures far apart
Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so.
What to do if the Home Page is missing
Spring in Devizes
Kiss and Book
Changing a screen saver from a web page (PHP, Perl, OSX)
Lua - a powerful, up and coming scripting language
Looking back through some photos
4759 posts, page by page
Link to page ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 at 50 posts per page


This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

Link to Ezine home page (for reading).
Link to Blogging home page (to add comments).

You can Add a comment or ranking to this page

© WELL HOUSE CONSULTANTS LTD., 2024: 48 Spa Road • Melksham, Wiltshire • United Kingdom • SN12 7NY
PH: 01144 1225 708225 • EMAIL: info@wellho.net • WEB: http://www.wellho.net • SKYPE: wellho

PAGE: http://www.wellho.info/mouth/1636_Wha ... ssing.html • PAGE BUILT: Sun Oct 11 16:07:41 2020 • BUILD SYSTEM: JelliaJamb