Removal of the /var/www/icons alias from Apache config [closed]

Question

I have a directory called /var/www/icons on my web server, which is also referenced as an alias in my Apache config as seen below:

Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"

The directory contains a number of small PNGs and GIFs, which AFAIK are unused, along with a README file.

Am I safe to remove this alias from my Apache config by commenting it out? If not, what area of my application is the removal of this likely to effect?

There is very little documentation available on this directory and I must admit i've never came across it up until now.

Microtone

Answer 1

Most icons are used for displaying file types in directory listings. If you do not use such listings, you can safely remove alias + files. I did so and do not miss them.

Sexcentenary

Thanks, it sounds like i'm relatively safe enough to remove the alias. By chance do you know if there is any documentation from Apache on this directory? – Microtone

I haven't found any. The directory is mentioned frequently in the mod_autoindex description. – Sexcentenary

Answer 2

It is for sure safe to remove it. Other conf files could reference /icons (e. g. the autoindex module) but apart from some not found errors nothing nasty should happen.

My advice: scan the access.log files to see if urls rooted at /icons are accessed. Delete the alias and monitor the error.log file for 404 errors.

Resolved

I am using Drupal 7 with Aquia Dev Desktop, how do I change that, on what file and where? – Xavier