iTP Secure WebServer System Administrators Guide (Version 7.5+)

Filemap url-prefix dir
where:
url-prefix
specifies the URL prefix to which this Filemap directive applies. For example:
/admin/widgets.
dir
is the server directory to which any object specification matching url-prefix
will be directed for the requested object.
The Filemap directive converts a matched request specification (object path) into the actual
location on the server of the requested object by substituting the target server directory (dir) for
the matched URL prefix (url-prefix).
The Filemap directive also has two options, both of which concern the handling of symbolic links.
For complete information on the use of the Filemap directive, see “Filemap” (page 212).
To illustrate how the Filemap directive works, assume the following Filemap directive is specified
in the configuration file of a server running on the host www.widgets.com:
Filemap /admin /usr/tandem/webserver/root
If a Web client user accesses this server by using the URL
http://www.widgets.com/admin/info/welcome.html
then the server maps the request to the following file on the server:
/usr/tandem/webserver/root/info/welcome.html
You can add new content to your server without having to restart or reconfigure your server. Place
new files under one or more of the directories specified in existing Filemap directives. As soon as
you place these new files under a mapped directory, users can begin accessing them.
For example, if you place a new file named office.html in the directory
/usr/tandem/webserver/root
users can immediately begin accessing this new file by using the URL
http://www.widgets.com/admin/office.html
Using Multiple Filemap Directives
If you have a large number of files to make available on your server, using multiple Filemap
directives might be useful. Multiple Filemap directives can coexist in the same configuration file
as long as each directive specifies a different matching prefix.
Using multiple Filemap directives enables you to partition major areas of server content across
different directories or even different disks. For example, given the directives
Filemap /encyclopedia /usr/disk0
Filemap /dictionary /usr/disk7
Filemap /info /G/data1/web
the URL
http://my.server.com/encyclopedia/info/doc.html
will see the file
/usr/disk0/info/doc.html
while the URL
http://my.server.com/dictionary/entry/ants.html
will see the file
/usr/disk7/entry/ants.html
100 Configuring the iTP Secure WebServer