# Index.html/index.md is absolutely required?

**URL:** <https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [September 27, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205 "2018-09-27T17:05:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kbcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9d8465/32.png) [@kbcoder](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/kbcoder)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205/1 "2018-09-27T17:05:23Z")

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Hi,

I’ve been learning and building my website using Jekyll hosting at Github (and another hosting place).

So far I’m getting a better handle on how Jekyll work. I check out other person’s theme and learn how they “connect the dot” between one page to another. And I checked out the documentation/guide/tutorial on [jekyllrb.com](http://jekyllrb.com).

What particularly interested me is ‘index.html/index.md’ file. When I check out other people’s Theme, I tend to trace their website (to see how it is connected from one page to another and etc). I noticed that some of thier website doesn’t have index file at their rootpath. I’m puzzled by that. I noticed that it open home.md/html. I checked why they open home.md/html and not index file. Those home.md/html has permalink set to ‘/’.

My question is. Is index.html/md absolutely required at rootpath? If so, then how other people’s didn’t have it at rootpath but still open home.md/html because of permalink?

What happen if there is no index file. And what is the requirement?

thanks.

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**Author:** ![mmistakes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/mmistakes/32/2169_2.png) [@mmistakes](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/mmistakes)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205/2 "2018-09-27T18:43:27Z")

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It comes down to your preference. Jekyll is flexible enough to organize your pages how you want.

If you want the most hands-off approach you place a page (`.md` or `.html`) wherever you want and Jekyll will build it in the same exact location.

**Examples:**  
`<root>/your-page.md` ~\> `_site/your-page.html`  
`<root>/your-page-2/index.md` ~\> `_site/your-page-2/index.html`

Some people don’t like to litter their root folder with pages and instead like to group them in a folder simliar to how `_posts` work. A common practice is to use `_pages` (don’t forget to include it in your \_config.yml) and the assign permalinks to each to tell Jekyll were to build the `.html`.

This obviously takes more effort since you need to add `permalink` to the front matter. But I think this is the method you see where someone has `_pages/home.md` and it builds to `_site/index.html`

By setting `permalink: /` in its front matter it achieves this.

You could also do something like:

```auto
permalink: /about/

```

In `<root>/_pages/about.md` and it’ll build out at `_site/about/index.html`

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**Author:** ![kbcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9d8465/32.png) [@kbcoder](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/kbcoder)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205/3 "2018-09-27T20:08:41Z")

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Ahh…Your explanation is a big help. It really clear up the confusion. It is all about what the end result (\_site) not what’s the file/folder’s structure before the build.

Now what will happen if you have index.html/md in root folder AND home.md with "permalink: / " front matter. That will produce two index.html?

I was under the impression after reading documentation that index.html must be in root folder without any emphasize on 'end result (\_site).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmistakes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/mmistakes/32/2169_2.png) [@mmistakes](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/mmistakes)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205/4 "2018-09-27T20:55:23Z")

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You’ll only get one… whatever file Jekyll reads last will overwrite the one before it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mmistakes](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/talk.jekyllrb.com/mmistakes/32/2169_2.png) [@mmistakes](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/u/mmistakes)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2018, 8:56pm UTC](https://talk.jekyllrb.com/t/index-html-index-md-is-absolutely-required/2205/5 "2018-09-27T20:56:11Z")

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And `index.html` only needs to be in the root when you’re using pagination. That plugin is extremely picky about file placement.