# Basic question **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 7:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025 "2010-05-22T07:57:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/1 "2010-05-22T07:57:29Z")
Hello, I’m new to Nginx and I have a basic problem. In short my “index.htm” isn’t dynamically loading on any sub-directories other than root. For example, “[http://www.mydomain.com/](http://www.mydomain.com/)” will load the index.htm page just fine. However, “[http://www.mydomain.com/subdirectory/](http://www.mydomain.com/subdirectory/)” will not load the associated index.htm. I have to manually specify “…/index.htm” within the URL for the page to load. This can’t be right/normal. My nginx.conf has this within the server declaration: ``` location / { root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; index index.html index.htm; allow all; } location ~* ^.+\.(jpg|jpeg|gif)$ { root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; access_log off; expires 30d; } ``` What am I missing? This has become a show-stopper for my project so your help is _very_ much appreciated! Thank you! - Gyan Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Basic question...](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,89024,89024#msg-89024)** > > Hello, I'm new to Nginx and I have a basic problem. In short my "index.htm" isn't dynamically loading on any sub-directories other than root. For example, "http://www.mydomain.com/" will load the index.htm page just fine. However,... ---
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/2 "2010-05-22T08:05:07Z")
On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 01:56:23AM -0400, gyan wrote: > ``` > root /var/www/localhost/htdocs; > > ``` > > What am I missing? This has become a show-stopper for my project so your help is _very_ much appreciated! > Do you have other locations ? – Igor S. > **[Igor Sysoev](http://sysoev.ru/en/)** ---
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/3 "2010-05-22T19:31:42Z")
Perhaps placing the root and index directives one level higher (i.e. within the server block) instead of at location / would be better. Just customise the individual locations within the server. server { … … root  /var/www/localhost/htdocs; index  index.html index.htm; ``` location / { allow all; } ... ... ``` } Ray. ---
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/4 "2010-05-22T20:01:33Z")
No, those are it. Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Basic question...](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,89024,89150#msg-89150)** > > Hello, I'm new to Nginx and I have a basic problem. In short my "index.htm" isn't dynamically loading on any sub-directories other than root. For example, "http://www.mydomain.com/" will load the index.htm page just fine. However,... ---
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/5 "2010-05-22T21:18:50Z")
Found the issue… My bad; mutliple conf files on sever… Thanks guys for the help! - Gyan Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Basic question...](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,89024,89164#msg-89164)** > > Hello, I'm new to Nginx and I have a basic problem. In short my "index.htm" isn't dynamically loading on any sub-directories other than root. For example, "http://www.mydomain.com/" will load the index.htm page just fine. However,... ---
**Author:** ![gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/838e76/32.png) [@gyan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gyan)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/basic-question/189025/6 "2010-05-22T20:02:44Z")
Hmmm, tried this and same result. Question. Is this normal behavior? I’m used to tomcat taking the index of any directory and using it as a default – I never expected Nginx to only use the root index and ignore all sub directories. Thank you for your posts… - Gyan Posted at Nginx Forum: > **[Re: Basic question...](https://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,89024,89151#msg-89151)** > > Hello, I'm new to Nginx and I have a basic problem. In short my "index.htm" isn't dynamically loading on any sub-directories other than root. For example, "http://www.mydomain.com/" will load the index.htm page just fine. However,...