Server-Side Includes

Feature	Syntax	Example
Automatically-updated timestamps	`<!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED" -->`	Updated Sunday, 23-Jan-00 12:42:58 PST
"Include" files -- boilerplate, maintain just one copy	`<!--#include file="footer.txt" -->`	Questions or comments? E-mail the webmaster.
Run local commands in shells or interpreters, capture output in web pages	`<!--#exec cmd="dir" -->`	01/23/00 02:17p 166 haha.html 05/20/98 09:59a 1,673 index.html 2 File(s) 1,839 bytes
Automated file size measurement	`<!--#fsize file="twain.gif" -->`	115K

Server Configuration

By default, this server feature is disabled.

To enable it, add these lines to srm.conf (Unix) or httpd.conf (NT):

	# To use server-parsed HTML files

	AddType text/html .shtml
	AddType text/html .html
	AddType text/html .htm

	AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
	AddHandler server-parsed .html
	AddHandler server-parsed .htm

and add the Includes option to the Options directive so that it looks like:

	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

Note: The Options directive may appear in several places.

Lab

Lab
Add the following code to an HTML document on your server: `<p> Your browser is: <!--#echo var="HTTP_USER_AGENT"-->* <p> This document was last updated on: <!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED"-->* <p> Files: <!--#exec cmd="dir"-->*** <p>` Note: replace `dir` with `ls -l` on Unix. View the document in your browser. Do not open it in your browser as a local file; have Apache deliver it. That is, be sure that the URL shown in the browser's `location` field starts with `http` not with `file`. Observe that there is no text between the colon and the asterisks. Modify Apache's configuration so that server-parsing is applied to all HTML files. Stop and restart the server, and reload the document in your browser. Observe that the server-side includes are now parsed. The browser type, a timestamp, and a file list are shown. Extra credit: repair the strange indenting of the file listing on NT. Hint: NT's `dir` command outputs `<DIR>` for each subdirectory.

Add the following code to an HTML document on your server:
<p> Your browser is: *** <p> This document was last updated on: *** <p> Files: *** <p>
Note: replace dir with ls -l on Unix.
View the document in your browser. Do not open it in your browser as a local file; have Apache deliver it. That is, be sure that the URL shown in the browser's location field starts with http not with file.
Observe that there is no text between the colon and the asterisks.
Modify Apache's configuration so that server-parsing is applied to all HTML files.
Stop and restart the server, and reload the document in your browser.
Observe that the server-side includes are now parsed. The browser type, a timestamp, and a file list are shown.
Extra credit: repair the strange indenting of the file listing on NT. Hint: NT's dir command outputs <DIR> for each subdirectory.

Server-Side Includes

Server Configuration

Documentation