When a visitor goes to your site by typing in a directory, such as www.your-domain.com/shop/, your server has a list of file extensions that it will serve as the index page for that directory. If you have several index files in there, there is a specified order that it will serve those files – first looking for one file extension, then the next, then the next, until it finds a valid index file with a valid extension.
The priority list for Linux/Apache servers is:
- index.cgi
- index.pl
- index.asp
- index.html
- index.html.var
- index.shtml
- index.php
- index.php3
- index.htm
- default.htm
- default.asp
The priority list for Windows IIS servers is:
- index.cgi
- index.pl
- default.asp
- index.asp
- index.html
- index.html.var
- index.shtml
- index.php
- index.php3
- default.htm
- index.htm
- iisstart.htm
- default.aspx
- index.aspx