Alex Rivera | Logout

Using htaccess, how to restrict seeing directory contents, but allow server to use the contents?

Asked 2011-05-27T20:17:47.513
28

More specifically, I have an htaccess file that restricts anyone from seeing the directory contents. Such that, nobody can see my 1000s of images in www.example.com/images by using:

deny from all
allow from 127.0.0.1

However, I want to use these images on www.example.com such that, <img src="images/thisimg.jpg" /> works.

I hope I'm in the right direction, but I appreciate any insight/re-direct. This is similar to: How to protect all directory contents, but gain access to php script but I want to link to these images in that directory, and using deny from all does not allow me to do that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

php .htaccess
Edit
Report

1 Answer

26

All you need to keep people from seeing the directory contents is an index.php or .html file in that folder. Any requests for yoursite.com/images will load index.php, which you'll set to a dummy page.

index.html could be something like:

<html><title>Forbidden!</title><body>Nothing to see here...</body></html>

or a redirect script index.php:

<?php header('Location: /index.php'); exit(); ?>

Don't use .htaccess for blocking directory listings, it blocks access to everything.

answered 2011-05-27T20:20:28.213

Your Answer