Why does index.html have priority over index.php?

Question

I have a website on a server. The homepage is example.com/index.php .

OK, I uploaded an index.html named file to the server (the root dir) and when I typed in my site's domain into the browser's URL bar, I was suprised, because the index.html page loaded.

(example.com->example.com/index.html) So not what I wanted.

My question: Why did that happen? Why does index.html have advantage over index.php?

Answer 1

It really depends on the Server you're using. This is a matter of configuration. It's not that there's any advantage from using html vs php filetype.

You could say that the .html variation takes precedence due to the fact that it's the most basic web format.

If you're using Apache, just check the default .htaccess setup:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.shtml index.php index.htm default.html Default.htm default.html Default.html default.shtml Default.shtml page1.html index.pl index.cgi index.php3 index.phtml home.htm home.html home.shtml index.wml 

You can edit that and make it fit your needs.

Answer 2

@kuroir is right, that depends on the web server configuration, in Apache it's the DirectoryIndex:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.php index.cgi 

That will give priority to .html files over .php files, and priority to .php files over .cgi files.