how to configure apache to view hidden (`.`) files?

Question

How do I make a directory listing in apache show the ./hidden files? I tried both

    <Directory /var/www/*>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
    </Directory>

and

    <Directory /var/www/>
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride None
            Order allow,deny
            allow from all
    </Directory>

but neither show the hidden files

Solution 1

Somewhere you have an IndexIgnore directive (mods-enabled/autoindex.conf?) that adds dotfiles to the list of files to ignore (mine has .??*) . Once a pattern has been added to the ignore list, it can't be removed.

Solution 2

To amend DerfK's answer: in apache version 2.4 you can, in fact, reset IndexIgnore via a new directive, IndexIgnoreReset

Comments

[Emanuel Berg]

Do you know, if this can be configured "locally", so to solve this problem?

[DerfK]

@EmanuelBerg the directive says it's valid in VirtualHost and .htaccess so it's possible to set it "locally" keeping in mind that you cannot unset filenames added at higher levels, so you'd need to completely remove global configuration.

[Daniel Sokolowski]

To be able to list .htaccess .htpasswd files you also have to add explicit listing using the <Files> directive; see /etc/apache2/apache2.conf where these files are set to be hidden: ' <Files ~ "^\.ht"> Order allow,deny Allow from all Satisfy all </Files>'