Deny Access to Folders but not Files in it

Question

I am currently on a shared host and my files and folders are placed inside "public_html". In this, I have a folder that consists more folders inside it along with many pdf files. So the folder looks like this: FOLDER/folder1/xyz.pdf FOLDER/folder2/abc.pdf etc..etc.. I am trying to figure out a way to deny access to the folder directly through a browser but not deny access to the files in it. At the moment, when someone goes to my site as www.mysite.com/FOLDER, you can access the folder and see its contents through a browser itself. But I dont want to deny complete access to the folder since I have links to its pdf files in some of other pages on my site like: Click here Can someone guide me on I can restrict the direct access to the folder but not deny access to its files plz? EDIT: I am thinking, do I just create an index.html file in every folder?

Accepted Answer

I would suggest using htaccess and adding the IndexIgnore command:

IndexIgnore *

Put it in a file and call it .htaccess (Not .htacces.txt, only .htaccess)

Another option is to prevent only one kind of file from being indexed:

IndexIgnore *.pdf

You can ignore any file type: " *.pdf *.zip *.jpg *.png *.html(bad idea! :P )"

I hope this helps :)

Deny Access to Folders but not Files in it

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