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Tip of the Trade: Directory Indexes in Apache

By Carla Schroder (Send Email)
Jul 25, 2006

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? Truncated filenames are so last century. Adding two simple lines to httpd.conf will expose filenames in their entirety and may well change your life.

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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