Why do people put empty index.html files into web directories?

Question

I see that quite often other people's web-site directories have empty html index files (1 file per dir). AFAIK - that's been done to prevent website users from seeing directory content - right?

I usually disable indexing in httpd.conf differently:

<Directory />
   Order Deny,Allow
   Deny from all
   Options None
   AllowOverride None
</Directory>

What would be the reason to create index.html in every web faced directory instead of simply restricting indexing in apache config file?

Answer 1

1. Httpd config is not always done by the same people as those who write the code / package the web site data. Putting empty index.html is one way to make sure the index is not displayed even if the config is incorrect.

2. Additionally, it avoids displaying a "forbidden" error message should a user reach the index page, either through manually editing the URL or a broken link. This can be avoided, but it requires some config works, and that's a problem because ... see point 1.

Answer 2

I think there is no good reason for this. And i don't know people who do this.

Where do you see this? If you disable the indexing its the same and enough.

Edit: There is one reason. When the indexing is enabled and you have no access to the server config to change it.

Answer 3

Maybe because it works everywhere ? Apache, Lighttpd, Nginx, Glassfish, Tomcat, etc.