The DocumentRoot Directive
The DocumentRoot
directive sets the directory from which your web server
serves files. Your web content should reside in this
directory.
The following is an example:
DocumentRoot /usr/local/etc/httpd/htdocs
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on DocumentRoot
Directive:
The DirectoryIndex Directive
When a URL request is
received that does not explicitly identify a resource
by name, (e.g. http://www.yourcompany.com), your web
server will attempt to retrieve the files defined by
the DirectoryIndex directive. Several files may
be defined. The web server will return the first one
that it finds.
The following is an example:
DirectoryIndex index.php
index.htm default.htm
A request for http://www.yourcompany.com
would return http://www.yourcompany.com/index.php if
it existed, then http://www.yourcompany.com/index.htm
if it existed, and so on until a match is found. If
no match is found, then an index of the files contained
in the directory is returned.
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site documentation
on Mod_dir:
The FancyIndexing, IndexOptions,
AddIcon, and IndexIgnore Directives
As noted above, the DirectoryIndex
directive identifies specific files that should be searched
for when a URL request is received that does not explicitly
identify a resource. If the DirectoryIndex search
fails and the Indexes option is set for the requested
directory (see the httpd.conf <Directory>
directive), then an index of files is generated and
served the client agent. There are several directives
that define the display of such an index of files.
For more information,
see the Apache
Web Site Documentation:
The AccessFileName Directive
When returning a document
to a client, the server looks for access control files
in the requested resource directory as well as its parent
directories. The AccessFileName directive sets
the name of the file your web server will look for to
find access control definitions. For more information
about access control files, please see the "Password-Protecting
a Directory" section later in this chapter.
The following is an example:
AccessFileName .htaccess
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on AccessFileName
Directive:
The DefaultType Directive
The DefaultType
directive defines a MIME type for resources on your
web server that do not match file extensions found in
your MIME types configuration file.
The following is an example:
DefaultType text/plain
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the DefaultType
Directive:
The AddLanguage Directive
The AddLanguage
directive is used to identify resources written in a
specific language with a file extension. The AddLanguage directive is essential for content negotiation, where
the server returns one of several documents based on
the language preference of the client browser. For more
information about content negotiation, please see the
"Serving Document Based on Language Preference"
section later in this chapter.
The following is an example:
AddLanguage en .en
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the AddLanguage
Directive:
The LanguagePriority
Directive
The LanguagePriority directive allows you to give precedence to some languages
in case of a "tie" during content negotiation,
or if the browser client does not specify a language
priority (which may happen with older browsers). Simply
list the languages in decreasing order of preference.
For more information about content negotiation, please
see the "Serving Document Based on Language Preference"
section later in this chapter.
Note: Use of this
directive requires that the mod_negotiation module
be loaded. Please refer to the LoadModule directive
explanation for more information.
The following is an example:
LanguagePriority en
fr de
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the LanguagePriority
Directive:
The Redirect Directive
The Redirect directive
is used to redirect absolute URL pathnames to absolute
URL addresses. This is especially useful if you have
resources that have moved from one location to another
and want to "redirect" requests for the document
at the old location to the new location.
The following is an example:
Redirect /path/file.html
http://somewhere.else/file.html
Redirect /path/file.html http://www.yourcompany.com/newfile.html
Redirect /directory http://somewhere.else/directory/
Redirect /directory http://www.yourcompany.com/newdirectory/
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the Redirect
Directive:
The Alias Directive
The Alias directive
allows documents to be stored in the local file system
other than under the directory defined with the DocumentRoot
directive.
The following is an example:
Alias icons /usr/local/etc/httpd/icons
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the Alias
Directive:
The ScriptAlias Directive
The ScriptAlias
directive has the same behavior as the Alias
directive, except that in addition to defining an alias
definition, the directive also marks the target directory
as containing CGI scripts.
The following is an example:
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/
/usr/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the ScriptAlias
Directive:
The AddType Directive
The AddType directive
allows you to add a new MIME type definition without
editing the file defined by the TypesConfig directive.
Your mime.types configuration file is fairly
complete, so you will rarely need the AddType
directive.
The following is an example:
AddType text/plain
.txt
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on the AddType
Directive:
The AddHandler Directive
The AddHandler
directive maps a filename extension to a special handler.
Example:
# To use CGI scripts:
#AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
Or:
# To use server-parsed
HTML files
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
For more information,
see the Apache Web Site Documentation on AddHandler
for Mod_Mime and the AddHandler
Directive:
The ErrorDocument Directive
The ErrorDocument
directive defines the location of documents that should
be displayed (or scripts that should be invoked) when
the server encounters an error. The directive can map
the error codes to documents or scripts on your local
server or on a remote server. When the error code is
encountered, you web server instructs the browser client
to redirect its request to the URL you define with the
error code. If no ErrorDocument definition exists
for a specific error code, then your web server outputs
a hardcoded error message that it has defined internally.
Common error codes include 401, 403, 404, 406, and 500.
Those error codes and their definitions are found in
the following table:
|
Error
Code |
Definition |
|
Error Code 401
– Authorization Failed |
The requested resource
required authentication, and the client failed
to provide a valid login/password pair. |
|
Error Code 403
– Permission Denied |
The client has
requested a resource that is forbidden. |
|
Error Code 404
– Resource Not Found |
The requested resource
does not exist on the web server. |
|
Error Code 406
– Resource Not Acceptable |
The requested resource
was found on the web server, but it could not
be delivered because the type of the resource
is incompatible with accepted types indicated
by the client. |
|
Error Code 500
– Internal Error |
The requested resource
does not exist on the web server. |
For more information
about custom error handling, see "Creating Custom
Error Document Pages" later in this chapter.
The following is an example:
ErrorDocument 401 /error_docs/subscribe.html
ErrorDocument 403 /error_docs/denied.html
ErrorDocument 404 /error_docs/notfound.html
ErrorDocument 406 /cgi-bin/error_scripts/language_handler.pl
ErrorDocument 500 /cgi-bin/error_scripts/script_error.pl
For more information,
see Apache Web Site Documentation on ErrorDocument
and Creating
Custom Errors
|
