The .shtml files in this directory are Apache server-parsed HTML files. Using server-side includes allows us to have a standard header and footer for all the pages on the site. This requires having Apache load mod_include, and then the following configuration is required in the VirtualHost: Options +Includes AddType text/html .shtml AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.shtml index.html At present, loading mod_include causes a weird interaction with Trac, which is fixed by adding the following to the Trac VirtualHost: ErrorDocument 401 default The Apache server on openlayers.org is (naturally) currently configured this way. The openlayers directory in this directory is a separate checkout from htdocs. You must go INSIDE the openlayers directory to update it. updating ~/openlayers.org/htdocs only gets the home page material.