Community Documentation

How to stop Drupal taking over my subdirectories

Last updated April 10, 2008. Created by christefano on August 14, 2007.
Edited by LeeHunter, dman. Log in to edit this page.

By default, if a file exists you can access it directly via an accurate URL, without Drupal even getting involved (this is due to a directive in the .htaccess rewrite)

However, also due to a directive in .htaccess, the default Apache raw directory browsing and 'index.htm' resolving behaviour is turned off - to protect your files from unintended access. Just entering a directory path as a link will not work (Access denied).

See Configuring .htaccess to ignore specific subfolders if you want to:

  • Provide raw directory browse access to areas
  • Run static HTML pages alongside (within) a Drupal installation
  • Run other web applications (like a stand-alone gallery or forum version)
  • Access a host-provided subdirectory or virtual subdirectory (eg /stats or /webmail)
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