Maker tech hub — AI · 3D print · Pi · ESP32 · plus the classic tech archive.

Free ESP32 kit · Books · Network Ninja · Archive

Classic tech archive. From the original averyjparker.com tech blog — historical context; pair with modern guides where noted. Full archive · Maker projects · Network Ninja

Classic tip · Classic

Using .htaccess to ALLOW directory browsing

By default the apache install for most sites now restricts directory browsing. It's a good idea, you don't want just ANYTHING to be browsable on a web server, but there comes a time that it makes lif…

Written by

Avery J. Parker

IT veteran, maker educator, and author of Network Ninja, 3D Printing Mastery, and AI Workflow Mastery. Business IT: Diversified Tech Solutions.

By default the apache install for most sites now restricts directory browsing. It's a good idea, you don't want just ANYTHING to be browsable on a web server, but there comes a time that it makes life easier for a directory (or tree of directories) to be browsable without having to write (copy and paste) links to a bunch of files. Fortunately, .htaccess files can be used for many things and this, of course, is one of them...


In my case, I was tired of linking to 5 rpm's when posting a new version of rpms on the site, so... I found a suggestion that putting this:

Options +Indexes

in an .htaccess file in the folder I wanted to browse would work... strangely it didn't. In my case, I found I had to do this...

Options +FollowSymLinks +Indexes

and things started working correctly. If you want a whole directory tree to be browsable the .htaccess file need only be put in the top directory of that tree and that browsable property will be "inherited" through all the subdirectories.