How to setup FollowSymLinks? - apache

Question

I am trying to have Apache follow a symlink to a raid array server that will contain some large data files. I have tried modifying httpd.conf to have an entry like this
<Directory "/Users/imagine/Sites">
Options FollowSymLinks
AllowOverride all
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
to have Apache follow any sym link in the Sites folder.
I keep getting an error return that seems to indicate I don't have any permissions to access the files. The error is:
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access
/~imagine/imageLibraryTest/videoClips/imageLibraryVideos/imageLibraryVideos/Data13/0002RT-1.mov
on this server.
The sys link file is the last "imageLibraryVideos" in the line with the Data13 being the sub dir on the server containing the file.
The 0002RT-1.mov file hase these permissions:
-rwxrwxrwx 1 imagine staff 1138757 Sep 15 17:01 0002RT-1.mov
and is in this path:
cd /Volumes/ImagineProducts-1/Users/imagine/Sites/imageLibraryVideos/Data13
the link points to:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 imagine staff 65 Sep 15 16:40 imageLibraryVideos -> /Volumes/ImagineProducts-1/Users/imagine/Sites/imageLibraryVideos

Answer 1

I had the same problem last week and the solution was pretty simple for me.
Run:
sudo -i -u www-data
And then try navigating the path, directory by directory. You will notice at some point that you don't have access to open the dir.
If you get into the last directory, check that you can read the file (with head for example).

Answer 2

Look in the enclosing directories. They need to be at least mode 711. (drwx--x--x)
Also, look in /var/log/apache2/error_log (Or whatever the concatenation of ServerRoot and ErrorLog is from the httpd.conf) for a possibly more-detailed error message.
Finally, ensure you restart apache after messing with httpd.conf.

Answer 3

You should also look at bind mounts rather than symlinks - that would allow you to remount a given path at a new point. The following is an example:
mount --rbind /path/to/current/location/somewhere/else /new/mount/point
You can also edit your fstab to do this at boot:
/path/to/original /new/path bind defaults,bind 0 0

Answer 4

This is a permissions problem where the user that your web server is running under does not have read and/or execute permissions to the necessary directories in the symbolic link path. The quick and easy way to check is to su - web-user (where web-user is the user account that the web server is running under) and then try to cd into the path and view the file. When you come across a directory that you don't have permission to enter, you'll have to change the permissions and/or ownership to make it accessible by the web server user account.