.htaccess - Allowing only localhost to access a folder where all inclusive php files exist

Question

We all have php files like 'connect_db.php' for include purposes only.

Suppose I have all those inclusive .php files in "www/html/INC"

And I have index.php

I want index.php accessible from browser to everyone, but I want to prevent users' direct access to "www/html/INC" folder. (e.g. when type in the browser 'www.domain.com/INC/' -> 404 error etc)

How do I achieve this?

Preferrably using .htaccess file in the root directory please.

Answer 1

Something like

<Directory /INC>
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
    Allow from 127.0.0.1
</Directory>

should work.