empty index.html files needed?

[BadPriTT]

Is it true there are empty index.html files in cmsms and subdirectories? If so, why is this?

Do I need them or can I safely delete/not upload them?

[Nick Smart]

Empty index.html files can be deleted and CMSMS will still work correctly.

However, they are a useful security measure to prevent users who navigate directly to a sub-directory from seeing the content of the sub-directory. Try navigating to a sub-directory with and without the empty index.html present to see the difference.

If you still can't see the sub-directory contents when the index.html has been deleted means that something else is blocking access to the directory listing. This is a good thing, but it is still worth leaving the empty index.html files in place.

Nick

[BadPriTT]

Thanks Nick.

Does this mean there have to be an empty index.html file in every subdir, even if there is a index.php file?

I can impossibly try every subdir, there are to many!

[Nick Smart]

Every sub-directory should have an index.php or index.html file in it.

Alternatively read this - http://wiki.cmsmadesimple.org/index.php ... l_Settings - and look at the example .htaccess files and these lines:

Code: Select all

# Turns off directory browsing
# not absolutely essential, but keeps people from snooping around without 
# needing empty index.html files everywhere
Options -Indexes

One .htaccess file in the root is all you need. I would still leave the empty index.html files alone.

Nick

[BadPriTT]

Thanks. I used an empty index.html in every dir now. Hope this works.

I will look into the extra options later, it is quite some stuff to dig into right now