Phantom directories?

I'm an old (since the mid-'80s) *ix person, and I thought I knew just
about everything about its directory structure and rules...but I guess
not. This is a bit difficult to explain, so please bear with me.

.. When I access my domain (let's call it mydomain.com) via FTP, I'm in
"/u179/my_user_name"; this is my root directory and I cannot "cd .."
back a level; in a browser's address box, this directory is reflected as
"www.mydomain.com"

.. When checking my Urchin reports, I found references to a directory
named "/icons"; when I went to it via my browser, it displayed a list
of, you guessed it!, icon files. In the browser's address box, it shows
that I'm in "www.mydomain.com/icons". There's also a subdirectory named
"small"; when in it, my browser shows "www.mydomain.com/icons/small"

.. Back at my FTP command line, "ls -al" shows no directory named
"/icons", nor can I "cd" into it

.. In my root directory I can "mkdir icons"; "pwd" shows that I'm in
"/u179/my_user_name/icons"

.. Back in my browser, pointing to "mydomain.com/icons" still brings up
the list of icon files--NOT the new, empty directory I just created

.. I can "rmdir icons" with no effect on the aforementioned directory
that appears from within a browser

So, my question is...WTF?! What am I missing?

--

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In comp.os.linux.misc ScrubsFan <nospam@bogus.fake.com>:
[..]

> . Back in my browser, pointing to "mydomain.com/icons" still brings up
> the list of icon files--NOT the new, empty directory I just created

> . I can "rmdir icons" with no effect on the aforementioned directory
> that appears from within a browser

> So, my question is...WTF?! What am I missing?

Try the apache docu, presuming this is what powers the http
server, /icons should be just some alias/etc directive in
httpd.conf, pointing to somewhere outside your document
directory in the chroot ftp environment.

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
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their reactor

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ScrubsFan wrote:
> I'm an old (since the mid-'80s) *ix person, and I thought I knew just
> about everything about its directory structure and rules...but I guess
> not. This is a bit difficult to explain, so please bear with me.
>
> . When I access my domain (let's call it mydomain.com) via FTP, I'm in
> "/u179/my_user_name"; this is my root directory and I cannot "cd .."
> back a level; in a browser's address box, this directory is reflected as
> "www.mydomain.com"
>
> . When checking my Urchin reports, I found references to a directory
> named "/icons"; when I went to it via my browser, it displayed a list
> of, you guessed it!, icon files. In the browser's address box, it shows
> that I'm in "www.mydomain.com/icons". There's also a subdirectory named
> "small"; when in it, my browser shows "www.mydomain.com/icons/small"
>
> . Back at my FTP command line, "ls -al" shows no directory named
> "/icons", nor can I "cd" into it
>
> . In my root directory I can "mkdir icons"; "pwd" shows that I'm in
> "/u179/my_user_name/icons"
>
> . Back in my browser, pointing to "mydomain.com/icons" still brings up
> the list of icon files--NOT the new, empty directory I just created
>
> . I can "rmdir icons" with no effect on the aforementioned directory
> that appears from within a browser
>
> So, my question is...WTF?! What am I missing?

You are missing the fact that a URL is not a file path. It is a mapping
to a path (or set of paths) performed and managed by the web server. The
web server, through logic of it's own, can map URLs to different points
in the directory tree, or to different paths on other directory trees,
or even to non-existant ('phantom') files and directories.

Assuming that you are running Apache, you'll find that there is a config
file that tells apache which directory tree directory matches the base
url. This is the base of the directory tree you traverse when you go to
http://host/<some_path>, with http://host/ corresponding to the base of
the directory tree.

Now, the Apache config permits 'personal' web space. If the incoming URL
is http://host/~<some_user_name>/<some_path> then it will search a
/different/ directory tree for the <some_path> portion of the URL. This
/different/ tree is specified in the Apache config file, in a way that
the tree can be different for each user (i.e. http://host/~lew_pitcher/
maps to /home/lew_pitcher/www/ while http://host/~ScrubsFan/ maps to
/home/ScrubsFan/www/ )

That's for the web URL. When you talk FTP, you talk to a different
server with a different view of the directory tree. The FTP server can
be (and usually is) configured such that anonymous access (which is the
sort that the ftp:// url defaults to) is rooted in a /different/
directory tree than anonymous web access. And the FTP server maps logged
in users to other trees as well (usually to the full directory tree of
the server, but this isn't always the case).

Thus
ftp://host/pub/
and
http://host/pub/
can be two different directories. And
ftp://user:password@host/pub/
can be a different directory from either of the other two. All the
mapping between virtual directory (the one named in the URL) and the
real directory is done by the servicing applications.


- --

Lew Pitcher, IT Specialist, Enterprise Data Systems
Enterprise Technology Solutions, TD Bank Financial Group

(Opinions expressed here are my own, not my employer's)
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Your HTTP server and FTP server are configured differently. While it may be
confusing, presumably there's a reason. If not, change the configurations
to be more similar.

To clarify, the address in the browser location box indicates the request
made to the server (and the protocol used). The server then translates the
request into some file path. The location listed in the browser location
bar has no correlation (well, need not have any) to the file name or path.
For example, using Apache, the Rewrite and Alias directives (mod_rewrite and
mod_alias) can, and generally do, perform various manipulations of the path
portion of the URL before it's mapped to the filesystem. Hypothetically,
your FTP server can do the same thing (but often they do little more than
jail you to a particular subdirectory and otherwise not modify the
underlying filesystem layout).


ScrubsFan wrote:

> I'm an old (since the mid-'80s) *ix person, and I thought I knew just
> about everything about its directory structure and rules...but I guess
> not. This is a bit difficult to explain, so please bear with me.
>
> . When I access my domain (let's call it mydomain.com) via FTP, I'm in
> "/u179/my_user_name"; this is my root directory and I cannot "cd .."
> back a level; in a browser's address box, this directory is reflected as
> "www.mydomain.com"
>
> . When checking my Urchin reports, I found references to a directory
> named "/icons"; when I went to it via my browser, it displayed a list
> of, you guessed it!, icon files. In the browser's address box, it shows
> that I'm in "www.mydomain.com/icons". There's also a subdirectory named
> "small"; when in it, my browser shows "www.mydomain.com/icons/small"
>
> . Back at my FTP command line, "ls -al" shows no directory named
> "/icons", nor can I "cd" into it
>
> . In my root directory I can "mkdir icons"; "pwd" shows that I'm in
> "/u179/my_user_name/icons"
>
> . Back in my browser, pointing to "mydomain.com/icons" still brings up
> the list of icon files--NOT the new, empty directory I just created
>
> . I can "rmdir icons" with no effect on the aforementioned directory
> that appears from within a browser
>
> So, my question is...WTF?! What am I missing?
>

--
Remove '.nospam' from e-mail address to reply by e-mail

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Michael Heiming skribis:
> In comp.os.linux.misc ScrubsFan <nospam@bogus.fake.com>:
> [..]
>>. Back in my browser, pointing to "mydomain.com/icons" still brings up
>>the list of icon files--NOT the new, empty directory I just created
>
>>. I can "rmdir icons" with no effect on the aforementioned directory
>>that appears from within a browser
>
>>So, my question is...WTF?! What am I missing?
>
>
> Try the apache docu, presuming this is what powers the http
> server, /icons should be just some alias/etc directive in
> httpd.conf, pointing to somewhere outside your document
> directory in the chroot ftp environment.
>


- From httpd.conf:

# Aliases: Add here as many aliases as you need (with no limit). The
format is
# Alias fakename realname
#
# Note that if you include a trailing / on fakename then the server will
# require it to be present in the URL. So "/icons" isn't aliased in this
# example, only "/icons/". If the fakename is slash-terminated, then the
# realname must also be slash terminated, and if the fakename omits the
# trailing slash, the realname must also omit it.
#
# We include the /icons/ alias for FancyIndexed directory listings. If you
# do not use FancyIndexing, you may comment this out.
#

Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"


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