.. include:: ../../Includes.txt .. _restrict-access-server-level: Restrict access to files on a server-level ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This is a controversial topic: some experts recommend to restrict the access to specific files on a server-level by using Apache's "FilesMatch" directive for example. Such files could be files with the endings ".bak", ".tmp", ".sql", ".old", etc. in their file names. The purpose of this restriction is, that even if backup files or database dump files are accidentally stored in the DocRoot directory of the web server, they cannot be downloaded. The downside of this measure is, that this is not the solution of the problem but a workaround only. The right recommendation would be not to store sensitive files (such as backups, etc.) in the DocRoot directory at all – instead of trying to address the issue by restricting the access to certain file names (keep in mind that you cannot predict which file names could occur in the future).