MIME Types and .htaccess


Please choose from the following questions.

  1. What are MIME types and how does the server use them?
  2. How do I add a MIME type?
  3. How do I set it up so a directory tree isn't shown when a someviews a directory in my account without specifying a file name.

What are MIME types and how does the server use them?

MIME types are a standard way of specifying the type of a document. A web server uses MIME types to tell browsers what type of document the server is sending. For files, the server determines the MIME type by the file's extension (the file extension is the last part of file name, such as .html, or .gif).

 The standard set of MIME types is defined in the file /usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/mime.types. However, you aren't limited to the types defined there. MIME types may also be added through the use of the AddType directive in .htaccess files.

How do I add a MIME type?

A MIME type can be added by creating a file called .htaccess in the directory containing the document you want to set the MIME type for. The file should contain a line in the following format:

 AddType mimetype ext

 Where mimetype is a MIME type like application/futuresplash and ext is a file extension like spl
 
 

How do I set it up so a directory tree isn't shown when a someviews a directory in my account without specifying a file name.

You can either upload an index.html file to the directory, or add the following to your .htaccess file:

Options -Indexes