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Index of Subjects Hi Doug, The standard response of the webserver to list the files in a directory when no "default page" exists, has been a _feature_ of the WWW since its earliest days. CCN has long accepted that as the normal way for things to be operated. Chebucto supports several different versions of default page, index.html, index.htm, maybe even index.shtml (?) Home.html, Home.htm, I'm not sure if there are any others, its part of the Apache configuration, and can be changed as needed. By the way, there is no way to force, or even invoke, a default page other than the directory listing for such a request using the file://localhost access of the Lynx browser - Lynx doesn't know how to do it. I don't understand why you would want to give an error message to a user who happened into a directory without such a default page. This seems to be a very anti-social kind of default. We want to make it easier for our IP users to build their websites, not force them to do extra checking to make sure unexpected error messages aren't foisted on viewers. In my view your "employer"'s default is a paranoid response of an organization that doesn't really trust its professionals. Of course, if there are files in some area that should not be accessed, then it is appropriate that steps be taken to control access. Whether that simply means hiding the directory listing (and leaving the document accessible in case it is linked from elsewhere) or taking steps to substitute up-to-date information, or archiving the document in question in a place without public access, or removing it altogether, or putting password access controls in place, is for the individual site editor to determine, and if it is a CCN document, then the CCN Webmaster would logically have some input in that question. Since CCN is a volunteer driven organization, I would not expect there to be anyone who should be able to absolutely enforce such a policy unless one could argue that it is essential to the effective functioning of the organization. BUT, if you are concerned that a certain subset of our site, that is under direct control of the CCN, e.g. the Helpdesk, the Policy area, or the newsletter... we could build a script that would periodically (or on request) crawl such a tree and report any directories that don't have any of the standard default pages. Human intervention could then be applied to build pages where needed. Direct feedback, rather than having to manually test every directory! Now that I think of it, this could even be a tool we could make available for the IP's too. Ed Dyer aa146@chebucto.ns.ca (902) H 826-7496 CCN Postmaster http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~aa146/ W 426-4894 CSuite Technical Workshop Religion Page Editor, Chebucto Community Network http://www.chebucto.ns.ca On Sun, 2 Jul 2000, David L. Potter wrote: > Hi Doug, > > Forcing this 'site wide' might negatively impact the design flexibility > of IP's who would like to allow this. > > An legitimate use of the 'directory listing' feature might be a site with > many files, if they use descriptive filename (and no index.html) they > don't have to edit an index page each time they add a file... > > In this case, site maintenance becomes much less work... > > > dlp > > > > On Sun, 2 Jul 2000 aa935@chebucto.ns.ca wrote: > > > Hi David > > > > I guess I've been spoiled in my day job. There .../ defaults to index.htm. If > > the file is not present, then a 'permission denied' error occurs. Could this > > be a default redirect at CCN? The policy seems to be wide-spread throughout > > the internet. > > > > Doug > > > > Quoting "David L. Potter" <potter@chebucto.ns.ca>: > > > > > > > > We currently have a number of directories that do not have an index.html > > > file... eg lists/ > > > > > > The result is anyone specifying this (type of) directory as a 'url' is > > > presented with a directory listing which may include files, other > > > directories, etc... in some instances this exposed files that are no longer > > > > > > current... > > > > > > --- > > > > > > A related policy/convention issues relates to the template element that > > > displays the 'location' of a document... e.g. > > > > > > Home >> lists >> ccn-webmaster > > > > > > In this example 'home' is a link, I have inserted 'lists' but this leads > > > back to the problem noted above, i.e. exposing files or directories that > > > may or may not contain 'secure' or outdated information... > > > > > > Has there been any discussion about what is appropriate for this > > > template element...? > > > > > > > > > david potter > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > This mail was sent through the Nova Scotia Provincial Server, > > with technical resources provided by Chebucto Community Net. > > http://nsaccess.ns.ca/mail/ http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/ > > >
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