Nginx Fancy Index module

Contents

• Requirements
• Building
• Example
• Directives
  • fancyindex
  • fancyindex_localtime
  • fancyindex_exact_size
  • fancyindex_header
  • fancyindex_footer
  • fancyindex_readme
  • fancyindex_readme_mode

The Fancy Index module makes possible the generation of file listings, like the built-in autoindex module does, but adding a touch of style. This is possible because the module module allows a certain degree of customization of the generated content:

• Custom headers. Either local or stored remotely (working).
• Custom footers. Either local or stored remotely (working).
• Insert readme files either at the top or the bottom of listings (partially working).
• Add you own CSS style rules (not yet implemented).

This module is designed to work with Nginx, a high performance open source web server written by Igor Sysoev.

Requirements

• Sources for Nginx 0.6.x, and its requirements.
• Patience, and some Coffee™.

Building

1. Unpack the Nginx sources:

   $ gunzip -c nginx-0.6.6.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
   

2. Unpack the sources for the fancy indexing module:

   $ gunzip -c nginx-fancyindex-?.?.?.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
   

3. Change to the directory which contains the Nginx sources, run the configuration script with the desired options and be sure to put an --add-module flag pointing to the directory which contains the source of the fancy indexing module:

   $ cd nginx-0.6.6
   $ ./configure --add-module=../nginx-fancyindex-?.?.?  [extra desired options]
   

4. Build and install the software:

   $ make
   

   And then, as root:

   # make install
   

5. Configure Nginx by using the modules' configuration directives.

Example

You can test the default built-in style by adding the following lines into a server section in your Nginx configuration file:

location / {
  fancyindex on;              # Enable fancy indexes.
  fancyindex_exact_size off;  # Output human-readable file sizes.
}

Directives

fancyindex

Syntax:	fancyindex [on | off]
Default:	fancyindex off
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Enables or disables fancy directory indexes.

fancyindex_localtime

Syntax:	fancyindex_localtime [on | off]
Default:	fancyindex_localtime off
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Defines how to represent file sizes in the directory listing; either accurately, or rounding off to the kilobyte, the megabyte and the gigabyte.

fancyindex_exact_size

Syntax:	fancyindex_exact_size [on | off]
Default:	fancyindex_exact_size on
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Enables showing file times as local time. Default is “off” (GMT time).

fancyindex_header

Syntax:	fancyindex_header path
Default:	fancyindex_header ""
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Specifies which file should be inserted at the head of directory listings. If set to an empty string, the default header supplied by the module will be sent.

fancyindex_footer

Syntax:	fancyindex_footer path
Default:	fancyindex_footer ""
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Specifies which file should be inserted at the foot of directory listings. If set to an empty string, the default footer supplied by the module will be sent.

Warning

When inserting custom header/footer a subrequest will be issued so potentially any URL can be used as source for them. Although it will work with external URLs, only using internal ones is supported. External URLs are totally untested and using them will make Nginx block while waiting for the subrequest to complete. If you feel like external header/footer is a must-have for you, please let me know.

fancyindex_readme

Syntax:	fancyindex_readme path
Default:	fancyindex_readme ""
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Specifies which file should be inserted alongside with directory listings. If set to an empty string, no extra textual content is included. See fancyindex_readme_mode in order to learn more about how the readme file may be included.

fancyindex_readme_mode

Syntax:	fancyindex_readme_mode pre | asis | top | bottom | div ...
Default:	fancyindex_readme_mode top
Context:	http, server, location
Description:	Controls how to include the readme file specified by fancyindex_readme. Available options are: pre Send included readme file inside a preformatted text block (i.e. an HTML <pre> element. asis Send included readme file “as-is”, i.e. without altering its contents. This is useful to include raw HTML snippets in the generated listings. top Place readme file contents at the top, before the listings. bottom Place readme file contents at the bottom, after the listings. div Wrap up all the text generated for the readme (including the enclosing <pre> element, if configured) inside a <div> element. The layer will have the readme CSS class set. iframe Insert an <iframe> element which references the readme file instead if inlining it in the generated file index. Note that this will instruct the client to perform an additional request in order to fetch the contents of the frame.