Document Root

The primary document directory or document root is the central directory that contains all the virtual server’s files to make available to remote clients.

The document root directory provides an easy way to restrict access to the files on a virtual server. It also makes it easy to move documents to a new directory (perhaps on a different disk) without changing any of the URLs because the paths specified in the URLs are relative to the primary document directory.

For example, if your document directory is C:\sun\servers\docs, a request such as http://www.sun.com/products/info.html tells the server to look for the file in C:\sun\servers\docs\products\info.html. If you change the document root (that is, you move all the files and subdirectories), you only have to change the document root that the virtual server uses, instead of mapping all URLs to the new directory or somehow telling clients to look in the new directory.

When you install the Sun Java System Web Server, you designate a document root for your web server instance. That becomes the document root for the default class. You can change that directory at the class level or override it at the individual virtual server level.

When you add a class, you also need to specify a document directory. That directory is an absolute path. However, if you simply enter an absolute path, the document roots for all virtual servers belonging to the class default to the same directory. If you include the variable $id at the end of your document root absolute path, every virtual server has a default document root of class_doc_root/virtual_server_ID. For example, if your class’ document directory is /sun/servers/docs/$id, the default document directory for a virtual server vs1 that belongs to the class is /sun/servers/docs/vs1.

For more information on variables, see Using Variables.

You can also override the class’ default document directory at the individual virtual server level.