Using a .htaccess file?

[paradox]

Does anyone know how to STOP google or any other search engines from indexing a specific directory?

I always though that if I put this into the top of the .htaccess file that would work
(reference http://www.searchtools.com/robots/robots-txt.html)

User-agent: *
Disallow: /abcdirectory/

but when I did that it created the errors. like "user agent mispelled ???

TIA for any help in using a .htaccess method to stop a directory from being indexed.

[porky]

just place it in a file called robots.txt in DocumentRoot, ie public_html dir.

thats the right syntax u've got. u dont put it in .htaccess tho.

[paradox]

Thank you very much porky

[Vin DSL]

Bad Bots, bad bots, whatcha' gonna' do? watcha gonna do when they > grep foo?

Good luck! It's just about impossible to stop a Google bot...

You might start here:

• http://www.searchengineworld.com/cgi...check.cgi//url
  

LoL! If you put this in the form:

• http://lenon.com/robots.txt

You'll see that I actually encourage Google bots (line #1)...

[lookout]

Originally posted by Vin DSL
Good luck! It's just about impossible to stop a Google bot...

Really? Although it does delve deeply, I haven't found that it ignores my robot.txt directions. In fact, it seems very well behaved in that respect. Of course, if those directions aren't in place before the bot indexes a site, the indexed pages might remain in Google's cache for quite awhile.