Index Files - HSC1 (100)

What is an index file? Index Files

An index file is the default file that is loaded when you visit a website. When you visit a site, you
don't type in the home page of the site you're looking for, you just type domain.com (or www.domai
n.com if you're still holding onto the past). Why though? How does that work? Its actually very
simple. Web servers, have a specific list of file names that they will automatically load when a
person requests a domain. Although they can be customized, most web servers read and utilize
What
the same index files. This helps keep things uniform for those of us who make the sites.
index
Every site has an index file. This is why you don't have to type in something such as files do
"godaddy.com/default.aspx" to get to the GoDaddy home page. Simple right? we use?
Order of
Precedence

Vault Resources: Vau

What index files do we use? lt 60

Now that you know what an index file is, let's talk about how they affect you on a daily basis. As External Resources:
explained before, every site has an index file and that's important because a lot of people don't
know this. As a result, many of your customer's will not upload an index file and will call in to find
out why their site is not resolving automatically when you visit their site via domain.com (or www.do
main.com). You can see a list of the index files we utilize on our different hosting accounts below:

Linux hosting accounts are case sensitive.

PHP files are not supported on IIS6 shared hosting account

Web and Classic Linux

1. default.html
2. default.htm
3. index.php
4. index.shtml
5. index.html
6. index.htm
7. home.html
8. home.htm
9. index.php5
10. welcome.html
11. welcome.htm

Web and Classic Windows

1. default.asp
2. default.html
3. default.htm
4. default.aspx
5. default.php
6. default.shtml
7. default.shtm
8. index.html
9. index.htm
10. index.asp
11. index.php
12. index.shtml
13. index.shtm
14. home.html
15. home.htm
16. home.shtml
17. home.shtm
18. welcome.html
19. welcome.asp

Shared Cpanel Hosting

1. index.html.var
2. index.htm
3. index.html
4.
 4. index.shtml
5. index.xhtml
6. index.wml
7. index.perl
8. index.pl
9. index.plx
10. index.ppl
11. index.cgi
12. index.js
13. index.jp
14. index.php4
15. index.php3
16. index.php
17. index.phtml
18. default.htm
19. default.html
20. home.htm
21. index.php5
22. Default.html
23. Default.htm
24. home.html

Shared Plesk Hosting

1. Index.html
2. Index.htm
3. Index.shtml
4. Index.shtm
5. Index.stm
6. Index.php
7. Index.php3
8. Index.asp
9. Index.aspx
10. Default.htm
11. Default.html
12. Default.asp
13. Default.aspx

ProTip
Be sure to reference this page or Vault 60 if you forget what index files can be used on
each account.

Order of Precedence
Index files function within an order of precedence. This means that having multiple index files may
yield a result the customer is not looking for. You'll note that each of the index files listed above has
a number next to it. That number is actually the order the file holds in regards to it's order of
precedence.The lower the number, the higher up on the order of precedence it is.

Examples

Let's look at Shared cPanel first. You see a customer has the files "index.php" and "index.html"
uploaded. Which one will resolve? If we compare their numbers we'll find that index.php has a
number of 16 and index.html has a number of 2. This means that index.html will resolve because it
holds a higher order of precedence.

Now lets look at Web and Classic Linux and let's use the same example files of "index.php" and
"index.html". If we compare the numbers for this type of hosting we'll find that index.php has a
number of 3 while index.html has a number of 5. That means that on Web and Classic Linux
hosting, index.php holds a higher precedence and it will resolve before index.html.

Follow the same process for our Shared Plesk, Web, and Classic Windows Hosting.

ProTip
If you're not sure which file holds a higher precedence, check out this page or Vault 60

Don’t forget, all Linux hosting is case sensitive. This means that Index.php, index.php,
and index.PHP are all different files.