Re: Linking in HTML

Peter Lees (peter@nospam.yseda.dialix.oz.au)
Tue, 22 Aug 1995 22:26:35 +1000 (EST)

Ryan Shelswell wrote...
>
> How come when you link to a page such as:
>
> http://ftoomsh.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~ryan/anotherone.html
>
> You don't put in the /public_html/ part of the path? I think it's tricky
> that you don't have to put it in but it actually doesn't work when you do
> put it in... is this /public_html/ a SoCS-determined thing and not a html
> standard, or is there some other explanation?

it's a definable field in the server config; as has been seen from
the sydney uni example, the server admin can make it
anything (possibly even "" - which would be interesting)

basically, http servers can catch and interpret aliases for directories, and
one common alias is that ~user will look in "user's" home directory,
plus whatever the admin decides is an appropriate path to www files.

it would also be possible to alias /user/ with /usr/home/user/public/html/
in the server config, to make it appear as if your own home page under the
top level directory for the http server...

so basically, the answer to ryan's questions are:

o you don't put /public_html/ in your path because it's already been
added by default

o the /public_html/ was the default directory for NCSA httpd, and has
been widely adopted as a "standard", but it can be set to whatever
takes the admin's fancy

cheers

peter

-- 
peter@nospam.next.com.au                 "...Beneath this playful, boyish exterior,
peter@nospam.yseda.dialix.oz.au           beats the heart of a sadistic maniac."
                                                        - Edmund Blackadder