Name

IndexOptions

Synopsis

IndexOptions option [option] ... (Apache 1.3.2 and earlier)
IndexOptions [+|-]option [[+|-]option] ... (Apache 1.3.3 and later) 
Server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess

This directive is somewhat complicated, and its syntax varies drastically depending on your version of Apache.

+/- syntax and merging of multiple IndexOptions directives is only available with Apache 1.3.3 and later; the FoldersFirst and DescriptionWidth options are only available with Apache 1.3.10 and later; the TrackModified option is only available with Apache 1.3.15 and later.

The IndexOptions directive specifies the behavior of the directory indexing. option can be one of the following:

DescriptionWidth=[n | *] (Apache 1.3.10 and later)

The DescriptionWidth keyword allows you to specify the width of the description column in characters. If the keyword value is *, then the column is automatically sized to the length of the longest filename in the display. See AddDescription for dangers inherent in truncating descriptions.

FancyIndexing

This turns on fancy indexing, which gives users more control over how the information is sorted.

Note that in versions of Apache prior to 1.3.2, the FancyIndexing and IndexOptions directives will override each other. You should use IndexOptions FancyIndexing in preference to the standalone FancyIndexing directive. As of Apache 1.3.2, a standalone FancyIndexing directive is combined with any IndexOptions directive already specified for the current scope.

FoldersFirst (Apache 1.3.10 and later)

If this option is enabled, subdirectories in a FancyIndexed listing will always appear first, followed by normal files in the directory. The listing is basically broken into two components, the files and the subdirectories, and each is sorted separately and then displayed with the subdirectories first. For instance, if the sort order is descending by name, and FoldersFirst is enabled, subdirectory Zed will be listed before subdirectory Beta, which will be listed before normal files Gamma and Alpha. This option only has an effect if FancyIndexing is also enabled.

IconHeight[=pixels] (Apache 1.3 and later)IconWidth[=pixels] (Apache 1.3 and later)

If these two options are used together, the server will include HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes in the IMG HTML tag for the file icon. This allows the browser to precalculate the page layout without waiting for all the images to load. If no value is given for the option, it defaults to the standard height of the icons supplied with the Apache software.

IconsAreLinks

This makes the icons part of the anchor for the filename for fancy indexing.

NameWidth=[n | *] (Apache 1.3.2 and later)

The NameWidth keyword allows you to specify the width of the filename column in bytes. If the keyword value is *, then the column is automatically sized to the length of the longest filename in the display.

ScanHTMLTitles

This enables the extraction of the title from HTML documents for fancy indexing. If the file does not have a description given by AddDescription, then httpd will read the document for the value of the TITLE tag. This is CPU and disk intensive.

SuppressColumnSorting

If specified, Apache will not make the column headings in a FancyIndexed directory listing into links for sorting. The default behavior is for them to be links; selecting the column heading will sort the directory listing by the values in that column. Only available in Apache 1.3 and later.

SuppressDescription

This will suppress the file description in fancy-indexing listings.

SuppressHTMLPreamble (Apache 1.3 and later)

If the directory actually contains a file specified by the HeaderName directive, the module usually includes the contents of the file after a standard HTML preamble (<HTML>, <HEAD>, etc.). The SuppressHTMLPreamble option disables this behavior, causing the module to start the display with the header-file contents. The header file must contain appropriate HTML instructions in this case. If there is no header file, the preamble is generated as usual.

SuppressLastModified

This will suppress the display of the last modification date in fancy-indexing listings.

SuppressSize

This will suppress the file size in fancy-indexing listings.

TrackModified (Apache 1.3.15 and later)

This returns the Last-Modified and ETag values for the directory listed in the HTTP header. It is only valid if the operating system and filesystem return legitimate stat( ) results. Most Unix systems do so, as do OS/2’s JFS and Win32’s NTFS volumes. OS/2 and Win32 FAT volumes, for example, do not. Once this feature is enabled, the client or proxy can track changes to the list of files when they perform a HEAD request. Note some operating systems correctly track new and removed files, but do not track changes for sizes or dates of the files within the directory.

There are some noticeable differences in the behavior of this directive in recent (post-1.3.0) versions of Apache.

For Apache 1.3.2 and Earlier

The default is that no options are enabled. If multiple IndexOptions could apply to a directory, then the most specific one is taken complete; the options are not merged. For example: 

<Directory /web/docs>
    IndexOptions FancyIndexing
</Directory>
<Directory /web/docs/spec>
    IndexOptions ScanHTMLTitles
</Directory>

In this case, only ScanHTMLTitles will be set for the /web/docs/spec directory.

For Apache 1.3.3 and Later

Apache 1.3.3 introduced some significant changes in the handling of IndexOptions directives. In particular: