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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 20, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/link-to-static-html-problem/79999 "2006-12-20T20:03:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@cpjolicoeur](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cpjolicoeur)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/link-to-static-html-problem/79999/1 "2006-12-20T20:03:57Z")
I’m having trouble linking to a static HTML page using rails link\_to
helper.
I have the page foo.html in my RAILS\_ROOT/public/ directory and if i try
to access the page manually by url [www.mysite.com/foo](http://www.mysite.com/foo) it works fine.
but i’m trying to link to that file with rails link\_to and it doesnt
work.
link\_to ‘my\_link’, “#{RAILS\_ROOT}/public/foo.html”
this gives me a Routing Error trying to load the static file.
what am I doing wrong here?
---
**Author:**  [@cpjolicoeur](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cpjolicoeur)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/link-to-static-html-problem/79999/2 "2006-12-20T20:07:48Z")
Craig J. wrote:
> link\_to ‘my\_link’, “#{RAILS\_ROOT}/public/foo.html”
That will create something like:
[my link](https://www.ruby-forum.com/home/var/www/myapp/public/foo.html)
this is ibviously not what you want. The link\_to helper only wants the
public path to your file, not the absolute path to the file on the disk.
You are way over thinking this.
\<%= link\_to ‘my link’, ‘/foo.html’ %\>
---
**Author:**  [@cpjolicoeur](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cpjolicoeur)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/link-to-static-html-problem/79999/3 "2006-12-20T20:14:06Z")
Alex W. wrote:
> Craig J. wrote:
>
> > link\_to ‘my\_link’, “#{RAILS\_ROOT}/public/foo.html”
>
> That will create something like:
>
> [my link](https://www.ruby-forum.com/home/var/www/myapp/public/foo.html)
>
> this is ibviously not what you want. The link\_to helper only wants the
> public path to your file, not the absolute path to the file on the disk.
> You are way over thinking this.
>
> \<%= link\_to ‘my link’, ‘/foo.html’ %\>
perfect. thanks for the quick response.