docs/manual/mod/mod_dir.xml

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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="../style/manual.xsl"?>
<modulesynopsis>

<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>
<description>List of resources to look for when the client requests
a directory</description>
<name>DirectoryIndex</name>
<syntax>DirectoryIndex
    <em>local-url</em> [<em>local-url</em>] ...</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 a directory
    name.  <em>Local-url</em> 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>

</modulesynopsis>