Re: How Google indexed a file with no external link

["W. Craig Trader" <ct7 () unicornsrest org>]

Kevin ...

I can tell you what's causing it, and how to disable it, but I can't 
point you to specific documentation about it.

Kevin wrote:

> Looking a bit deeper, I saw googlebot (and later, some ordinary vistors)
> using this syntax:
>
>         http://handsonhowto.com/?M=A
>         http://handsonhowto.com/?S=D
>
> ...and if you try this yourself in Internet Explorer, you'll find that 
> Apache is ignoring my index.html and is giving you a formatted directory 
> of the docroot directory as though there were no index page.
>
> The differences between the ?M and the ?S versions are not blatantly
> obvious, at least not to me.


This is a "feature" of the Apache autoindex module:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_autoindex.html

When you turn on FancyIndexing, the index page includes links for 
sorting the directory by Name, file Size, Modification date/time, etc. 
You can disable this by setting IndexOptions +SuppressColumnSorting
for any/all directories that have indexing enabled.  These links are 
apparently interpreted by apache even if the directory has an index 
page.  Bad Apache -- no biscuit.

> <Directory />
>     Options FollowSymLinks
>     AllowOverride None
> </Directory>
>
> <Directory /home/http/bcc/images>
>     Order Deny,Allow
>     Deny from All
>     AllowOverride AuthConfig
> </Directory>
>
> <Directory "/home/http">
>     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
>     AllowOverride None
>     Order allow,deny
>     Allow from all
> </Directory>
>
> <IfModule mod_dir.c>
>     DirectoryIndex index.html
> </IfModule>
>
> <IfModule mod_autoindex.c>
>     IndexOptions FancyIndexing
> # Bunch of defaults provided by Apache - snipped
>     ReadmeName README
>     HeaderName HEADER
>     IndexIgnore .??* *~ *# HEADER* README* RCS CVS *,v *,t
> </IfModule>

I would recommend reading the auto_index module docs and altering your 
settings for <Directory "/home/httpd"> accordingly.

- Craig -

--
============= Excellence is a journey, not a destination =============
=============== W. Craig Trader <ct7 () unicornsrest org> ===============