image files uploaded, but directory only contains DAT files
Posted: 2023-12-19 08:31
Hi Friends,
I hope this is not one of those dreaded questions that you get constantly. I have searched in all the recommended places, and either I did not understand the search results, or I didn't find the answer. Actually I did find one similar message in your forum, but it looks like the op disappeared before they found the answer.
I am not the server owner, but I'm a co-admin of our forum. The server holds the whole website, but for security purposes, we thought it was better for me to only have access to the forum files on the server. We have an SMF forum, with a server format that looks something like this:
smf forum
- attachments
- avatars
- cache
- custom avatars
- Packages
- Smileys
- Sources
- Themes
All the files that we've uploaded to the attachments folder, were image files uploaded as PNG or JPG or PDF, possibly some other image formats, like GIF. However, I've just gotten access to the forum part of the server, through FileZilla, and I noticed that all the files in the attachments folder or directory have a DAT extension. There is not a single image extension.
However, in other image directories, such as avatars or Smileys, they all have the appropriate image extensions, such as PNG, JPG, GIF, whatever. I've been looking everywhere I can find in FZ, to compare the different directories, to try and find a clue.
The only thing I've noticed so far, is that the attachment dirs have a file called .htaccess. But the avatars and Smileys dirs do not have such a file.
I've looked up .htaccess in Wikipedia, but I don't really understand what it means, relative to either the attachments directory or the image files.
Also I looked up what the DAT extension means, which is 'proprietary data'. So that makes me wonder if SMF might not have been installed correctly. Although I should say that the images are displayed in the forum exactly like we expect, and the forum functions properly in every way we've tested it.
Can anyone answer any of this? If it's a very common question, I apologize, and I really appreciate your patience. Thank you very much
I hope this is not one of those dreaded questions that you get constantly. I have searched in all the recommended places, and either I did not understand the search results, or I didn't find the answer. Actually I did find one similar message in your forum, but it looks like the op disappeared before they found the answer.
I am not the server owner, but I'm a co-admin of our forum. The server holds the whole website, but for security purposes, we thought it was better for me to only have access to the forum files on the server. We have an SMF forum, with a server format that looks something like this:
smf forum
- attachments
- avatars
- cache
- custom avatars
- Packages
- Smileys
- Sources
- Themes
All the files that we've uploaded to the attachments folder, were image files uploaded as PNG or JPG or PDF, possibly some other image formats, like GIF. However, I've just gotten access to the forum part of the server, through FileZilla, and I noticed that all the files in the attachments folder or directory have a DAT extension. There is not a single image extension.
However, in other image directories, such as avatars or Smileys, they all have the appropriate image extensions, such as PNG, JPG, GIF, whatever. I've been looking everywhere I can find in FZ, to compare the different directories, to try and find a clue.
The only thing I've noticed so far, is that the attachment dirs have a file called .htaccess. But the avatars and Smileys dirs do not have such a file.
I've looked up .htaccess in Wikipedia, but I don't really understand what it means, relative to either the attachments directory or the image files.
Also I looked up what the DAT extension means, which is 'proprietary data'. So that makes me wonder if SMF might not have been installed correctly. Although I should say that the images are displayed in the forum exactly like we expect, and the forum functions properly in every way we've tested it.
Can anyone answer any of this? If it's a very common question, I apologize, and I really appreciate your patience. Thank you very much