apache permission problem when trying to access regular files

Question

-edit2- wtf, now its looking for /etc/apache2/htdocs/file.ext. WTF!!!!

I want static.mysite.com/file.ext to access /var/www/mysite/data/public/file.ext

so i wrote the below in apache. I get a 403 error. My file is 2750. When i go through www.mysite.com/file.ext i can see it (this is going through mod_mono/xsp) but not through static. How do i fix this? i prefer not changing permissions

Forbidden

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

apache:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  static.mysite.com

    <Directory /var/www/mysite/data/public>
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

-edit- i also notice this in my logs

[Mon Mar 28 08:51:42 2011] [crit] [client 76.10.163.134] (13)Permission denied: /etc/apache2/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

Answer 1

The <Directory> directive is for e.g. applying access-control to a given directory; it doesn't specify the document root.

Try something like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  static.mysite.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite/data/public

    <Directory /var/www/mysite/data/public>
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Answer 2

Could be that your apache user doesn't have permission to read the .htaccess. Try changing its permissions to something more lax.

Answer 3

Solution: Use DocumentRoot instead of Directory.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName  static.mysite.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/mysite/data/public
</VirtualHost>

Answer 4

It's almost always something to do with the higher directory permissions.

Check the "data" and "public" directory permissions are readable too.

-- EDIT --

You could try this: Blog link