browser question

[dazed]

Hello all,
Quick question, I need to view the contents of websites through my browser.

Is there a way to view the root level of sites ignoring index.html pages and having the browser show a directory structure of what all is on the server?

This is for research and I know sites with directory snooping off wont allow it but many will. Any programs or commands that could enable this thru a browser basically ignoring index.html pages and just showing a file structure?

Thanks
Dazed

[jatar_k]

not so far as I know. The only time that happens is when they forget to put in the default file or forget to add the one they use to the list. I don't think there is a way to force this behaviour though.

[Mohamed_E]

I don't think it is possible.

As I understand things, if you send a request for site.com the server, not your browser, redirects it to site.com/index.html if the file exists, or to a filename of the user's choice. It is only if there is no index file that you have a chance to see the directory structure.

Note that I may well be wrong, this is just my interpretation of what I have seen and read.

[hartlandcat]

This is a server issue, not a browser one. Servers are set up to look for an index.html file in a directory. If they don't find that, they look for index.htm, index.shtml, index.asp, index.php, index.pl and index.cgi usually in that order. Many servers will then look for default.html, default.htm, default.shtml, default.asp, default.php, default.pl and default.cgi.

The only way of possibly changing this would be to contact your webhost.

[MonkeeSage]

One of the things I really like about the hosting service I use is that they have their servers set up in such a way that if you request any root folder except absolute root (e.g., /something/, or /something/else/ -- anything other than /), you get a forbidden error; but if you request a file in the same folder (e.g., /something/file.htm), you can view it fine (assuming the particular file has public read permissions).

I'm not sure how they set it up, but they are running Apache, so it may be an option in the Apache config. I think you could also do it with .htaccess, but I'm not certain.

I've never seen any way to get around it and view the directory structure (which, IMO, is great -- I don't want people browsing around and finding unlinked pages, trial stuff that isn't ready for publication, &c).

Jordan