iTP Secure WebServer System Administrators Guide (Version 7.5+)

Handling DirectoryAccesses
A URL can see a directory instead of a specific object. For example:
http://my.server.com:8080/personal/tootie/
When a URL refers to adirectory, the server looks for an index file within the directory being
requested. The specificindex file the server looks for is determined by the setting of the IndexFile
directive. For example, if your server receives a directory request, and the directive
IndexFile index.html welcome.html
is specified in the server configuration file (httpd.config), your server searches first for the
index file index.html within the specified directory. If it finds this file, it returns the content to
the Web client. Otherwise, it searches for the specified alternative index file, welcome.html. If
your server cannot find this file, it returns an error message to the Web client (unless automatic
indexing is specified; see “Enabling Automatic Directory Indexing” (page 117)).
For complete information on the IndexFile directive, see “Configuration Directives” (page 198).
A common use of index files is to establish home pages that apply to a server's entire contents.
For example, the following directives might be specified in a configuration file:
Filemap / /usr/tandem/webserver/root/
IndexFile index.html
When a Web client makes a request to this server through the home page URL
http://www.widgets.com/
the server returns the file index.html contained in
/usr/tandem/webserver/root
You can configure your server to automatically generate anindex file whenever the server cannot
locate an index file within an accessed directory. This generated index file lists all the files currently
residing in the accessed directory. For complete information on automatic indexing, see “Enabling
Automatic Directory Indexing” (page 117).
Content Negotiation
Sometimes it is reasonable to present the same content to different users in different ways. For
example, you might want to let the user choose whether to receive text in English, German, or
Japanese. Similarly, different clients might prefer different character sets or file compression options.
To satisfy these requirements, the iTP Secure WebServer supports server-based content negotiation.
Content negotiation implies that:
• A request from a client might include Accept headers (Accept, Accept-Language,
Accept-Encoding, Accept-Charset) to specify the client's preferred data representations. The
HTTP/1.1 specification defines these headers and also a method of weighting (describing the
precedence among) several options.
• The server configuration enables content negotiation and specifies the types of content
negotiation to allow (language only or multiple criteria).
• The content files are organized and named in a way that enables the server to distinguish
among different representations of the same content.
Managing Server Contents 101