14.1. i-bay Directories

Each i-bay has three directories - html, files and cgi-bin. Each directory is briefly outlined below:

• cgi-bin: This directory is set aside to hold "CGI scripts" used for that i-bay's web pages. CGI scripts are tools used in advanced web site creation and are not discussed here.

• files: This directory holds files that can be accessed either locally only or publicly. It can be used for such things as a company download site, a company-wide file sharing server, or a document sharing site for a specific customer. When someone connects to the i-bay using FTP, they will see the files in this directory.

• html: When an i-bay is accessed using a web browser (via http), the user will enter the html directory and the web browser will automatically open the index file (usually index.html or index.htm) in that i-bay. In other words, it will display the web page associated with that i-bay. This means you can have different web sites running on your server, each associated with a specific i-bay. This can be very powerful and useful, as you will see in the upcoming examples.

Generally, you can think of the html directory as the place to put all files, images and documents that you would like to be accessible through the web . The files directory is for all files that you want people to access through FTP or regular file sharing. Note that you can have as many subdirectories as you wish underneath either html or files but you cannot create additional directories at the top level of the i-bay.