docs/manual/mod/mod_dir.xml

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<modulesynopsis metafile="mod_dir.xml.meta">
<name>mod_dir</name>
<description>Provides for "trailing slash" redirects and
    serving directory index files</description>
<status>Base</status>
<sourcefile>mod_dir.c</sourcefile>
<identifier>dir_module</identifier>

<summary>
    <p>The index of a directory can come from one of two sources:</p>

    <ul>
      <li>A file written by the user, typically called
      <code>index.html</code>. The <directive module="mod_dir"
      >DirectoryIndex</directive> directive sets the
      name of this file. This is controlled by
      <module>mod_dir</module>.</li>

      <li>Otherwise, a listing generated by the server. This is
      provided by <module>mod_autoindex</module>.</li>
    </ul>
    <p>The two functions are separated so that you can completely
    remove (or replace) automatic index generation should you want
    to.</p> 

    <p>A "trailing slash" redirect is issued when the server
    receives a request for a URL
    <code>http://servername/foo/dirname</code> where
    <code>dirname</code> is a directory. Directories require a
    trailing slash, so <module>mod_dir</module> issues a redirect to
    <code>http://servername/foo/dirname/</code>.</p>
</summary>

<directivesynopsis>
<name>DirectoryIndex</name>
<description>List of resources to look for when the client requests
a directory</description>
<syntax>DirectoryIndex
    <var>local-url</var> [<var>local-url</var>] ...</syntax>
<default>DirectoryIndex index.html</default>
<contextlist><context>server config</context><context>virtual host</context>
<context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context></contextlist>
<override>Indexes</override>

<usage>
    <p>The <directive>DirectoryIndex</directive> directive sets the
    list of resources to look for, when the client requests an index
    of the directory by specifying a / at the end of the directory
    name.  <var>Local-url</var> is the (%-encoded) URL of a document on
    the server relative to the requested directory; it is usually the
    name of a file in the directory. Several URLs may be given, in
    which case the server will return the first one that it finds.  If
    none of the resources exist and the <code>Indexes</code> option is
    set, the server will generate its own listing of the
    directory.</p>

    <example><title>Example</title>
      DirectoryIndex index.html
    </example>

    <p>then a request for <code>http://myserver/docs/</code> would
    return <code>http://myserver/docs/index.html</code> if it
    exists, or would list the directory if it did not.</p>

    <p>Note that the documents do not need to be relative to the
    directory;</p>

    <example>
      DirectoryIndex index.html index.txt  /cgi-bin/index.pl
    </example>

    <p>would cause the CGI script <code>/cgi-bin/index.pl</code> to be
    executed if neither <code>index.html</code> or <code>index.txt</code>
    existed in a directory.</p>
</usage>
</directivesynopsis>

<directivesynopsis>
<name>DirectorySlash</name>
<description>Toggle trailing slash redirects on or off</description>
<syntax>DirectorySlash On|Off</syntax>
<default>DirectorySlash On</default>
<contextlist><context>server config</context><context>virtual host</context>
<context>directory</context><context>.htaccess</context></contextlist>
<override>Indexes</override>
<compatibility>Available in version 2.1 and later</compatibility>

<usage>
    <p>The <directive>DirectorySlash</directive> directive determines, whether
    <module>mod_dir</module> should fixup URLs pointing to a directory or
    not.</p>

    <p>Typically if a user requests a resource without a trailing slash, which
    points to a directory, <module>mod_dir</module> redirects him to the same
    ressource, but <em>with</em> trailing slash for some good reasons:</p>

    <ul>
    <li>The user is finally requesting the canonical URL of the resource</li>
    <li><module>mod_autoindex</module> works correctly. Since it doesn't emit
    the path in the link, it would point to the wrong path.</li>
    <li><directive module="mod_dir">DirectoryIndex</directive> will be evaluated
    <em>only</em> for directories requested with trailing slash.</li>
    <li>Relative URL references inside html pages will work correctly.</li>
    </ul>

    <p>Well, if you don't want this effect <em>and</em> the reasons above don't
    apply to you, you can turn off the redirect with:</p>

    <example>
        # see security warning below!<br />
        &lt;Location /some/path&gt;<br />
        <indent>
            DirectorySlash Off<br />
            SetHandler some-handler<br />
        </indent>
        &lt;/Location&gt;
    </example>

    <note type="warning"><title>Security Warning</title>
    <p>Turning off the trailing slash redirect may result in an information
    disclosure. Consider a situation where <module>mod_autoindex</module> is
    active (<code>Options +Indexes</code>) and <directive module="mod_dir"
    >DirectoryIndex</directive> is set to a valid resource (say,
    <code>index.html</code>) and there's no other special handler defined for
    that URL. In this case a request with a trailing slash would show the
    <code>index.html</code> file. <strong>But a request without trailing slash
    would list the directory contents</strong>.</p>
    </note>
</usage>
</directivesynopsis>

</modulesynopsis>