apache stopped working

[loren_ryter]

I wasn't using Web Sharing much but when it was on it was working. Now I turned it back on and I get:


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

I checked my /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file and it is the same as it was before. the ownership is root/wheel, with read to everyone.

i did install brickhouse firewall, but it is open to port 80 and all other web services work normally.

[at_sym]

Usually that error means you're having permissions errors. Try this: Use Show Info > Privileges to change the Sites folder to Read/Write for the owner and Read for Group and Everyone. Then change the index.html file in Sites to Read/Write for all three.

If that solves it, and if you have more files in Sites you want to change, you can use chmod to batch change them.

If it doesn't solve it, post again and let us know what your privileges are. Good luck!

[loren_ryter]

that was the problem. all of the folders needed execute persmission. (I dimmly recall that folders need execute permission to open). This brings up a couple of other questions:

1. is there a danger to assigning execute permission to files that are not executable (.html, .jpg, .gif, etc) if I batch change them?

2. why would these folders suddently lose their execute permission (assuming they had it before since everything was working before.)

thanks

[at_sym]

Originally posted by loren_ryter
1. is there a danger to assigning execute permission to files that are not executable (.html, .jpg, .gif, etc) if I batch change them?

I don't think you need to assign execute permission to the files. You should be OK just assigning read permission for the files on your site.

2. why would these folders suddently lose their execute permission (assuming they had it before since everything was working before.)

Just out of curiosity, were you using 10.0.x before upgrading to 10.1? I noticed that the permissions for a good number of files installed under 10.0 had bizarre permissions settings after upgrading. Maybe it has something to do with how the two versions of X handle permissions? (It's a long shot.)

[pkishor]

Originally posted by loren_ryter
I wasn't using Web Sharing much but when it was on it was working. Now I turned it back on and I get:


Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.

I checked my /etc/httpd/httpd.conf file and it is the same as it was before. the ownership is root/wheel, with read to everyone.

i did install brickhouse firewall, but it is open to port 80 and all other web services work normally.

Hi,

There is not enough info here to determine exactly why you are having this problem. However, contrary to other suggestions in this thread, you do not need read/write permission on web files... you need only read permission for www. In fact, you almost never need write permission. Otoh, you would need execute permission if you are running cgi, but that is usually in the cgi-bin directory.

Check your httpd.conf file. There is an option there for turning on indexes... it would look something like this...

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec

blah... blah... blah

</Directory>

see the line in red above... the word "Indexes" tells Apache to show the directory listing is no specific file is asked for and if no default index exists.

The above block is followed by...

<IfModule mod_dir.c>
DirectoryIndex index.html index.pl index.php index.htm default.html
</IfModule>

This block defines the names of possible index files.

Make sure you have the Options Indexes above followed by a default index file declaration. If Options Indexes is missing and there is no default index then Apache will not display anything and show a forbidden access error.

That said, this is not the only reason you could be getting this error. In that case, more info would be needed.

Check out the excellent 3-part article on Apache on OS X by morbus at oreilly.net/mac

hth.

[loren_ryter]

thanks for the info about index settings in httpd.conf, but clearly the problem was NOT having world execute permission on the parent folder to the index.html file. Once I changed that it worked. Try it yourself, take away that permission for the folders on your site and see if it works.

[jmelloy]

For folders, execute permission allows the contents inside to be searched. Whcih is rather important for a web server.

[pkishor]

Originally posted by jmelloy
For folders, execute permission allows the contents inside to be searched. Whcih is rather important for a web server.

Ya, you guys are correct. My folder perms are drwxr-xr-x

pk/