basic Apache configuration

Question

In a fresh linux instalation, apache's document root points to /var/www/html

user apache
group apache
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
<Directory /var/www/html>
# ...
</Directory>

I want my documentRoot points to "/home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public", so I've made this changes:

DocumentRoot /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public
<Directory /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public>
# ...
</Directory>

But now I'm getting the 'Forbidden' error message. So what is the correct way to configure permissions in order to resolve this issue in a production enviroment.

Answer 1

I can think of two possible problems:

1. Actual directory permissions are screwed up. This is fairly easy to test by changing to the user that Apache runs as and attempting to list that directory (assuming Apache is configured to run as "www-data"):

   sudo su -s /bin/sh www-data
   ls /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public/
   

   If the Apache user does not have access, every directory in the path, starting from / will need to have read and execute permissions either for the Apache user or for "other":

   sudo chmod o+rx /home /home/myapp /home/myapp/release  /home/myapp/release/1.0.0 \
       /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public
   

2. You're trying to access a directory via Apache that does not contain an index file and you have not enabled "Indexes". This is also easy to test by looking to see if there is a file named index.html (or .php, .htm, etc.) in /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public. If there is not, either add one or add Options +Indexes to the <Directory /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public> block.

Answer 2

The apache user must have read permission in that directory. Also include these directives:

<Directory /home/myapp/release/1.0.0/src/public>
   # ...
   Order Allow,Deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>