RE: http directory index request

David Levine (David@InterWorld.com)
Tue, 16 Apr 1996 14:39:40 -0400


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There is no such command. This would be a security breach of a fairly
high order. Sometimes web servers will return a directory when you
access a directory that has no default file.

For instance, if a web server is set up to serve "index.html" when a file
is not specified (i.e. http://foo.bar/blah/) and there IS no index.html in
that directory, some web servers will send a directory list instead.

This is user configurable, however, and can be turned off.

--
David Levine, Application Engineer
InterWorld Technology Ventures, Inc.
david@interworld.com
http://www.interworld.com/staff/david/

>---------- >From: Mark Norman[SMTP:mnorman@hposl41.cup.hp.com] >Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 1996 1:32 PM >To: robots@webcrawler.com >Subject: http directory index request > >What is the HTTP request that returns a list of the files in a directory? >This >is obviously a no-brainer since all of the browsers can make this request, >but >I don't see anything in the documentation I have on HTTP that describes >this. I >am looking at the document from the IETF which has this header: > >HTTP Working Group R. Fielding, UC Irvine >INTERNET-DRAFT H. Frystyk, MIT/LCS ><draft-ietf-http-v11-spec-01.txt> T. Berners-Lee, MIT/LCS >Expires in six months January 19, 1996 > > > Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1 > > >Thank you. > > >

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