How to Enable Directory Indexing on GitHub Pages

I also wanted to do this. I tried uploading an .htaccess file with contents Options +Indexes to the relevant directory, but that did not work.

So, I used your option #2, writing a tiny Python script to generate an index file for the directory.

""" Build index from directory listing

make_index.py </path/to/directory> [--header <header text>]
"""

INDEX_TEMPLATE = r"""
<html>
<body>
<h2>${header}</h2>
<p>
% for name in names:
    <li><a href="${name}">${name}</a></li>
% endfor
</p>
</body>
</html>
"""

EXCLUDED = ['index.html']

import os
import argparse

# May need to do "pip install mako"
from mako.template import Template


def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("directory")
    parser.add_argument("--header")
    args = parser.parse_args()
    fnames = [fname for fname in sorted(os.listdir(args.directory))
              if fname not in EXCLUDED]
    header = (args.header if args.header else os.path.basename(args.directory))
    print(Template(INDEX_TEMPLATE).render(names=fnames, header=header))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Better is this way which will go into subdirectory and make index files for them as well

""" Build index from directory listing

make_index.py </path/to/directory> [--header <header text>]
"""
from __future__ import print_function
import os.path, time

INDEX_TEMPLATE = r"""

<html>
<head>
<title>${header}</title>
<meta name="description" content="${header}"/>

</head>
<body>
    <h2>Index of ${header}</h2>
    <p>
    <table>
        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <th valign="top"><img src="${ROOTDIR}images/blank.gif"
                    alt="[ICO]"></th>
                <th><a href="?C=N;O=D">Name</a></th>
                <th><a href="?C=M;O=A">Last modified</a></th>
                <th><a href="?C=S;O=A">Size</a></th>
                <th><a href="?C=D;O=A">Description</a></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="5"><hr></th>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td valign="top"><img src="data:image/png;base64,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 "
                    alt="[PARENTDIR]"></td>
                <td><a href="../">Parent Directory</a></td>
                <td>&nbsp;</td>
                <td align="right">-</td>
                <td>&nbsp;</td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <th colspan="5"><hr></th>
            </tr>

            % for name in dirnames:
            <tr>
                <td valign="top"><img src="data:image/png;base64,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 "
                    alt="[DIR]"></td>
                <td><a href="${name}">${name}</a></td>
                <td align="right">${time}</td>
                <td align="right">-</td>
                <td>&nbsp;</td>
            </tr>
            % endfor
            % for name in filenames:
            <tr>
                <td valign="top"><img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABAAAAAQCAIAAACQkWg2AAAABnRSTlMAAAAAAABupgeRAAABHUlEQVR42o2RMW7DIBiF3498iHRJD5JKHurL+CRVBp+i2T16tTynF2gO0KSb5ZrBBl4HHDBuK/WXACH4eO9/CAAAbdvijzLGNE1TVZXfZuHg6XCAQESAZXbOKaXO57eiKG6ft9PrKQIkCQqFoIiQFBGlFIB5nvM8t9aOX2Nd18oDzjnPgCDpn/BH4zh2XZdlWVmWiUK4IgCBoFMUz9eP6zRN75cLgEQhcmTQIbl72O0f9865qLAAsURAAgKBJKEtgLXWvyjLuFsThCSstb8rBCaAQhDYWgIZ7myM+TUBjDHrHlZcbMYYk34cN0YSLcgS+wL0fe9TXDMbY33fR2AYBvyQ8L0Gk8MwREBrTfKe4TpTzwhArXWi8HI84h/1DfwI5mhxJamFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC "
                    alt="[DIR]"></td>
                <td><a href="${name}">${name}</a></td>
                <td align="right">${time}</td>
                <td align="right">-</td>
                <td>&nbsp;</td>
            </tr>
            % endfor
            </p>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</body>
</html>
"""

EXCLUDED = ['index.html']

import os
import argparse

# May need to do "pip install mako"
from mako.template import Template

def fun(dir,rootdir):
    print('Processing: '+dir)
    filenames = [fname for fname in sorted(os.listdir(dir))
              if fname not in EXCLUDED and os.path.isfile(dir+fname)]
    dirnames = [fname for fname in sorted(os.listdir(dir))
            if fname not in EXCLUDED  ]
    dirnames = [fname for fname in dirnames if fname not in filenames]
#    header = os.path.basename(dir)
    f = open(dir+'/index.html','w')
    print(Template(INDEX_TEMPLATE).render(dirnames=dirnames,filenames=filenames, header=dir,ROOTDIR=rootdir,time=time.ctime(os.path.getctime(dir))),file=f)
    f.close()
    for subdir in dirnames:
        try:
            fun(dir+subdir+"/",rootdir+'../')
        except:
            pass

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
    parser.add_argument("directory")
    parser.add_argument("--header")
    args = parser.parse_args()
    fun(args.directory+'/','../')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

If you want a dynamic index that doesn't require any updating the only method I've found is by generating it client side with the github contents api.

Here is a simple example that creates links to files in the top level directory of your project. If you want to support subdirectories using this method you would have to recursively request the contents of each folder.

<html>
  <body>
    <script>
      (async () => {
        const response = await fetch('https://api.github.com/repos/:user/:repo/contents/');
        const data = await response.json();
        let htmlString = '<ul>';
        
        for (let file of data) {
          htmlString += `<li><a href="${file.path}">${file.name}</a></li>`;
        }

        htmlString += '</ul>';
        document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].innerHTML = htmlString;
      })()
    </script>
  <body>
</html>

Here's an example where I used this to create a simple directory for a flat repo I have.

How to Enable Directory Indexing on GitHub Pages

Tags:

Indexing

Git

Github

Server

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