How to restrict the download of all files in a folder?

Question

I have several .pdf files, which should be viewed on my website by clicking a link on a page. But when a pdf file opens, in the address bar the directory where all .pdf files reside is visible. So if the user enters http://example.com/myDir in the address bar he will see and be able to download all files at once. But I don't want that!

When I chmod 644 myDir, the files are not visible even for my site - i.e. you can not open them by clicking the link I have mentioned. How to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Using .htaccess you can block it like this:

Options -Indexes

If you want to prevent users from being able to access those files without first being authenticated see this answer.

Answer 2

You should disallow directory browsing. There are a few ways you could to that, depending upon what sort of access you have to the server, but using htaccess is the simplest.

For example, to prevent all PDF files from being listed:

IndexIgnore *.pdf

Answer 3

Create an empty file named index.html in your myDir folder. Anyone visiting that folder will then see a blank screen instead of a directory listing.