: Using one index file in all directories and subdirectories I have an index.php file, which processes content of a directory it is located in and renders output to the browser. The problem is

@Ogunnowo487

Is there a method to tell the webserver (Apache, nginx, ..) that if an index file is not present in a directory under document root, then it should use the specified index.php located elsewhere?


Yes, on Apache you can control this with the DirectoryIndex directive in your Apache config (or .htaccess file). For example:

DirectoryIndex index.php /index.php


When requesting a filesystem directory, this will serve either index.php in that directory, if it exists, otherwise /index.php will be served (index.php in the document root).

Nginx appears to have a similar directive called simply index.
Reference: serverfault.com/a/402949/49157

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@Murray432

I understand what you are asking, but cannot figure out why you would need an index.php file in every directory (if typical php application programming practices are followed).

If you have to refer to the root index.php file from every sub-directory, mod_rewrite is the easiest way at the server level. This isn't server agnostic, as you may be asking, but see this article for examples on how to get the server to always refer to the index.php file: stackoverflow.com/questions/8595964/redirect-all-traffic-to-index-php-using-mod-rewrite

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