Nginx File Directory — Architecture¶

The whole application¶

index.html      21 lines
Dockerfile      Nginx, serving that one file

No icons, no stylesheet, no scripts, no dependencies. This is the most minimal of the three file-directory projects, because the page it imitates is the most minimal.

A `<pre>` block, not a table¶

Apache and Chrome both render their listings as HTML tables. Nginx does not — its autoindex output is preformatted text, with columns aligned by literal spaces.

This project reproduces that faithfully, which has one consequence that matters more than any other: whitespace is the layout. Nothing computes column positions, so the alignment you see is the alignment you typed.

That is why Usage opens by telling you to disable format-on-save. An HTML prettifier will reflow the <pre> contents and the columns will visibly drift.

It also explains the absence of icons. Nginx does not emit them, so neither does this.

Static means hand-maintained¶

Nothing reads a directory. Every line exists because someone typed it, and nothing validates that a link resolves or a date is accurate.

Property	Because
Works from `file://`	Nothing is fetched
Deploys by copying one file	There is nothing to build
Goes stale silently	Nothing re-reads the directory

A real Nginx server generates this per request. This is a picture of one.

Upstream notices are in the file¶

index.html opens with two copyright headers: the Nginx one covering the original design, and the project's own. Preserve both when editing — they are the attribution, and the full upstream notice is in LICENSE_nginx.md.

Docker¶

Dockerfile runs Nginx serving the static file — pleasingly circular, and convenience rather than necessity. Any web server, or none, will do.

Automation¶

Workflow	Purpose
`docs.yml`	Deploys to GitHub Pages on push to `main`
`docker-publish.yml`	Publishes the image to GHCR
`gitleaks.yml`	Scans for committed secrets

Dependabot updates Actions and the Docker base image. There are no application dependencies.

No tests¶

None, and for a 21-line static file that is defensible — verification is opening it and looking.