The <Files> directive limits the scope of the enclosed directives by filename. It is comparable to the <Directory> and <Location> directives. It should be matched with a </Files> directive. The directives given within this section will be applied to any object with a basename (last component of filename) matching the specified filename. <Files> sections are processed in the order they appear in the configuration file, after the <Directory> sections and .htaccess files are read, but before <Location> sections. Note that <Files> can be nested inside <Directory> sections to restrict the portion of the filesystem they apply to.

The filename argument should include a filename, or a wild-card string, where ? matches any single character, and * matches any sequences of characters.

<Files "cat.html">
 # Insert stuff that applies to cat.html here
</Files>
<Files "?at.*">
 # This would apply to cat.html, bat.html, hat.php and so on.
</Files>

Regular expressions can also be used, with the addition of the ~ character. For example:

<Files ~ "\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$">
 #...
</Files>

would match most common Internet graphics formats. <FilesMatch> is preferred, however.

Note that unlike <Directory> and <Location> sections, <Files> sections can be used inside .htaccess files. This allows users to control access to their own files, at a file-by-file level.

See also

• How <Directory>, <Location> and <Files> sections work for an explanation of how these different sections are combined when a request is received