Apache server directory browsing while there is a website running

Question

Is it possible to browse a directory on an Apache server with a running website? Example: I have myserver/mydirectory with an index.html and 'test.txt`. Can I list somehow those files assuming browsing is enabled?

Answer 1

there are a couple of things you can try:

1. in httpd.conf find the line that begins with "DirectoryIndex" and replace it with "DirectoryIndex disabled" this way apache will not server default files like index.html and just list files. however you can explicitly request it if you want.

2. if default document setting is important to you, you can also configure apache to listen to another port and setup a virtual host on that port and do the same thing with "DirectoryIndex" for virtual host, this way you have two ports , one that serves default documents and one that only list files.

3. if you want to use only one port for this , you can try no. 2 option and then set a proxy that sends all requests that begin for example with /list/ to the other virtual host, this way you work on one port and if you want list of files instead of writing "/myserver/mydirectory" you request "/list/myserver/mydirectory"

hope it helps.

Answer 2

The DirectoryIndex directive in the Apache configuration tells Apache which index files to look for. Default settings includes index.html, so if you have such a file in your directory, this is the file that Apache will serve if you enter the site without specifying a specific file (this you properly already know, but included for completeness).

To enable directory listing in Apache, have a look at the Options Indexes option. For example in your case (assuming your website is located in /var/www/website:

<Directory /var/www/website/mydirectory>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
</Directory>

This will, however, only enable listing of files if Apache do not find an index file. A solution is therefore either to delete (or rename index.html), or to use a website scripting language like PHP to enable directory listing (For this, Google is your friend :-)