Index: conf/nutch-default.xml
===================================================================
--- conf/nutch-default.xml	(revision 478870)
+++ conf/nutch-default.xml	(working copy)
@@ -17,6 +17,15 @@
   otherwise, no truncation at all.
   </description>
 </property>
+  
+<property>
+  <name>file.crawl.parent</name>
+  <value>true</value>
+  <description>The crawler is not restricted to the directories that you specified in the
+    Urls file but it is jumping into the parent directories as well. For your own crawlings you can
+    change this bahavior (set to false) the way that only directories beneath the directories that you specify get
+    crawled.</description>
+</property>
 
 <property>
   <name>file.content.ignored</name>
Index: src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/File.java
===================================================================
--- src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/File.java	(revision 478870)
+++ src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/File.java	(working copy)
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@
   static final int MAX_REDIRECTS = 5;
 
   int maxContentLength;
+  boolean crawlParents;
 
   // 20040412, xing
   // the following three: HttpDateFormat, MimetypesFileTypeMap, MagicFile
@@ -159,6 +160,7 @@
   public void setConf(Configuration conf) {
     this.conf = conf;
     this.maxContentLength = conf.getInt("file.content.limit", 64 * 1024);
+    this.crawlParents = conf.getBoolean("file.crawl.parent", true);
   }
 
   public Configuration getConf() {
Index: src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/FileResponse.java
===================================================================
--- src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/FileResponse.java	(revision 478870)
+++ src/plugin/protocol-file/src/java/org/apache/nutch/protocol/file/FileResponse.java	(working copy)
@@ -204,7 +204,10 @@
     throws IOException {
 
     String path = f.toString();
-    this.content = list2html(f.listFiles(), path, "/".equals(path) ? false : true);
+    if (this.file.crawlParents)
+        this.content = list2html(f.listFiles(), path, "/".equals(path) ? false : true);
+    else
+        this.content = list2html(f.listFiles(), path, false);
 
     // set headers
     headers.set(Response.CONTENT_LENGTH,