Apache server directory browsing while there is a website running - apache

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?

there are a couple of things you can try:
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.
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.
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.

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 :-)

Related

Apache URI path recognition / mapping?

I have a website for all intents and purposes is called.
www.foobar.com
Which in my server path is /var/www/
I tried to create a new folder in /var/ called "analytics", with the hope that if I typed www.foobar.com/analytics I could access that folder.
However that does not work because it is actually looking for /var/www/analytics instead of /var/analytics
So how can I have multiple directories mapped to a URI?
For phpmyadmin I can access www.foobar.com/phpmyadmin with the phpadmin folder is in a completely different directory. So it must be possible.
However I tried googling but could not find any answers so I guess I do not have the right description of what this functionality is on Apache webservers.
Any help would be appreciated.
You have to create virtual directories in Apache.
If you are using Apache2, then can you go to the directories
/etc/apache2/sites-available and /etc/apache2/sites-enabled.
You have probably only the default virtual directory enabled.
You can make a copy of a virtual directory in the map /sites-available.
A virtual directory starts with specifying what the root directory is.
Then can you use the commands a2ensite and a2dissite in order to enable or disable the virtual directories respectively.
After a change in enabled/disabled virtual directories do you need to restart/reload the apache server.
If you use .htaccess file, do not forget to set AllowAccess (in the tag Directory) to at least FileInfo or .htaccess will be ignored.
If you want to make those directories different hosts, then can you make aliases in /etc/hosts.
On my home computer have I aliases for the ip addresses 27.0.0.1 and 27.0.1.1.
That gives me the possibility to have two different sites at the same time.

Apache - virtualhosts and global apache config

I have an apache server configured with multiple NameVirtualHosts running on the same IP. This all works fine.
However, because of the "include conf.d/*" directive, apache also picks up config for cacti and phpmyadmin, which add in aliases for /cacti and /phpmyadmin, and those aliases appear to be valid for all virtualhosts. That is to say, I can go to http://firstvirtualhost/cacti and also http://secondvirtualhost/cacti, and I get the same page.
In my case, the default namevirtualhost is publicly visible, and I do not want tools like phpmyadmin or cacti to be visible under that URL
In fact, I don't want any random package to be able to make itself visible across all virtualhosts simply by creating a file for itself in conf.d.
You have to delete the line include conf.d from the global Apache configuration file, and optionally add it to your own private virtual host configuration file.

Difference between ServerRoot, DocumentRoot, and Directory

While playing with Apache, I messed up the paths without making a backup httpd.config file.
The file is located at C:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.config
I want to keep my web project on the D: drive as a virtual folder. This is the current non-working state. How can I fix this or revert to the xampp defaults?
ServerRoot "C:\xampp\apache"
DocumentRoot "D:\workspace"
<Directory "D:\workspace\AutionWebSite">
ServerRoot = path to the webserver executable/dir
DocumentRoot = path to your files that are delivered by the server
The <Directory> directive is used to configure settings for a specific directory. However, the <Directory> command in your question is not complete.
The default values for DocumentRoot and Directory for XAMPP is "C:\xampp\htdocs"
I would say that the most easiest way for you would be to check your xampp version, make a back up of your document root, which is probably "www" or "htdocs", your configuration files and eventually dump your database. Now install the same version of xammp again and there it is.
And at least the first rule is by playing with "config files", make backups before. The second rule is, make a backup of the whole configuration directory anyway, just for the case. And the last one is, if you are a xammp user, means you are a windows user, so you probably don't have unixoid server administration knowledges, so there is a long way for you to starting to "play" with the apache server.
The only think that you should know is, that you need to set the direction "AllowOverride All", which is necessary, if you use some content management system or other systems, which brings there own .htaccess file. So long you work on windows with xammp and not on a linux or other unixoid operating systems, you cannot understand the complete world of web servers like apache or database servers like postgresql and the sensibility of configuration files.
I understand the necessity of it for understanding of whole web applications respect. to be an full stack web programmer, but before that, i wouldn't change in the future the default server configurations, just check the row "AllowOverride All". Hope this will help your.
Server Root "/Local"
-specifies the default directory hierarchy for the Apache installation.
Document Root"/Local/WWW/apache22/data"
- the directory out of which you will serve your documents.

PHP: How to code .htaccess to make it work both on localhost & online without editing

I have a .htaccess file & I currently I am working on localhost. For a 404 page error, I have the following code in the .htaccess file:
ErrorDocument 404 /my_local_domain/404.php
But when I upload this file to my website online, the functionality of the file breaks. It no longer shows the 404.php page. It works if I modify the code in the .htaccess file of my online website to the following:
ErrorDocument 404 /404.php
Now all through the changes that I do in the .htaccess file, I would have to remember to remove the domain name before I upload it to the website or I risk breaking the functionality. So with this in mind, here are my questions:
1. How do I solve the above problem without needing to edit the .htaccess file each time (by stripping it off the my_local_domain) I make a change & upload it online?
2. How do I setup 404 page redirection for all the nested folders? (I don't want to setup a .htaccess file for each of the folders. A single .htaccess file that resides in the root folder of the website & controls all the redirection for all the sub-folders would be awesome)
All help is appreciated.
Thank you.
I believe you have two different issues here.
First of all, you should not need to have different paths in development and live site. It appears that you've configured your local Apache to host only one site and each actual sites goes in a subdirectory. It's not a good idea: you'll soon be mixing cookies and sessions between all your dev sites. Have a look at the name based virtual hosts feature: you can configure as many independent sites as you need. You don't even have to buy real domains in you set them in the hosts file.
Secondly, under certain circumstances it can be useful to have different Apache directives. I've been using the following trick.
Pick a keyword for the dev server, e.g. DEV_BOX.
Pass that keyword to Apache in the -D parameter. If you run it as service, you can run regedit and find the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Apache2.2\Parameters key. Append -D DEV_BOX to the ConfigArgs value. Restart Apache.
Now, you can use the <IfDefine> directive to set local directives:
-
#
# Common stuff
#
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
#
# Local-only stuff
#
<IfDefine DEV_BOX>
Options +Indexes
</IfDefine>
#
# Live-only stuff
#
<IfDefine !DEV_BOX>
Options -Indexes
</IfDefine>
First of all I suggest you setup local domains for development. For example if you are developing a website which will go under www.example.com, you can setup a local.example.com in your HOSTS file. You'll do a VirtualHost setup in your apache and the .htaccess will then be the same.
Also, you can setup a build process (e.g via Ant) which will allow you to prepare and generate a zip file with the files which go on the live server. This build will feature the correct configuration files (db configs, mail servers, htaccess etc).

How can I get apache to list a folders contents?

How can I get Apache to display the contents of my folder and provide links to them? Similar to http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/?
I don't have access to the Apache configuration, so I'm looking for something in the way of .htaccess or something I can do in just my home folder.
You have to use the option Indexes in the Apache configuration.
For instance, in the .htaccess file for your directory (if you can use those, and have sufficient privileges), you could put :
Options +Indexes
This functionality is provided by mod_autoindex, which has lots of options to allow fine-tuning of the generated output, btw
To get this working, that module must be loaded, and to be able to activate the option in an .htaccess file, you will need the admin of the server to give you some privileges (with the AllowOverride directive in the Apache's main config file, if I remember correctly -- well, your admin should know that better than me anyway ^^ )