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ServerWatch > Tutorials

July 25, 2006
Tip of the Trade: Directory Indexes in Apache
By Carla Schroder

This little hack is so easy, that we have an almost have a missionary zeal to spread it to Apache Webmasters everywhere. In addition to its simplicity, it's a great convenience to visitors. How many download sites have you visited that display file indexes like this?

Index of /pub/asterisk Icon Name Last modified Size Description [DIR] Parent Directory - [ ] ChangeLog-1.2.9.1 06-Jun-2006 11:37 93K [ ] ChangeLog-1.2.9.1-ne..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 93K [ ] ChangeLog-addons-1.2.3 01-Jun-2006 17:50 3.4K [ ] INSTALL.README.X100P 04-Dec-2005 18:21 2.8K [ ] INSTALLX100P.ps 04-Dec-2005 18:21 309K [DIR] appnotes/ 04-Dec-2005 18:21 - [ ] asterisk-1.2-current..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 10M [ ] asterisk-1.2-netsec-..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 10M [ ] asterisk-1.2.9.1-net..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 1.5K [TXT] asterisk-1.2.9.1-net..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 378 [ ] asterisk-1.2.9.1-net..> 06-Jun-2006 11:37 75

Now, how in the heck are you supposed to deal with this? Really, this is so last-millennium. True, most Web browsers display the full filename at the bottom as the mouse hovers over the filename. But is this not the 21st century? Must we remain trapped in a truncated filename mentality?

To find your way to the present, expose the entire filenames by adding these lines to httpd.conf:

IndexOptions FancyIndexing VersionSort IndexOptions FancyIndexing VersionSort NameWidth=40

That sets the maximum to 40 characters, which is long enough for most sites. Naturally, this can be tweaked as desired, so you get a nice readable display like so:

Index of /linux/fedora/linux/core/5/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS Icon Name Last modified Size Description [DIR] Parent Directory - [ ] ElectricFence-2.2.2-20.2.i386.rpm 06-Mar-2006 14:54 31K [ ] GConf-1.0.9-20.i386.rpm 06-Mar-2006 16:38 562K [ ] GFS-kernel-2.6.15.1-5.FC5.17.i686.rpm 14-Mar-2006 18:48 182K [ ] GFS-kernel-smp-2.6.15.1-5.FC5.17.i686.rpm 14-Mar-2006 18:48 184K [ ] GFS-kernel-xen0-2.6.15.1-5.FC5.17.i686.rpm 14-Mar-2006 18:48 188K

Now, isn't that ever so much nicer! It really is that simple; check your Apache documentation if you don't believe us.

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