Stop directory listing using .htaccess and redirect to good error page

Stop directory listing using .htaccess and redirect to good error page - .htaccess files are extremely useful in many cases for users who either do not have root permissions or for users who simply aren't comfortable in making changes in their web server's configuration file. Trying to debug .htaccess not working isn't always the easiest thing to do, however, hopefully by checking the discuss below mentioned about apache, htaccess, error, gui, .htaccess common problems as well as the troubleshooting tips, you'll have a better grasp on what you may have to modify to get your .htaccess file running smoothly.Problem :

I have a directory with several sub directories. I found this article Preventing Directory Listing that shows me how to prevent people from getting the directory listings.

IndexIgnore *

But it produces a bad error page, (it looks like an empty directory listing). Instead I would like to redirect the user to a page or show a better error page when they try to view the directory listings of a sub directory.

I am using Apache

Solution :

Try this:

Options -Indexes
ErrorDocument 403 /path/to/403.html

Additionally, if you would like to do some further testing, give the htaccess tester tool a try. It allows you to specify a certain URL as well as the rules you would like to include and then shows which rules were tested, which ones met the criteria, and which ones were executed.