[SOLVED] Apache won't follow symlinks

[Ben Cotton]

I'm running Apache 2.2.8 on Fedora 7. I created a symlink in my DocumentRoot, and the permissions are 755 on the directory. In my httpd.conf, I have allowed FollowSymLinks, but when I try to view the page, I get 403ed and error_log has "Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible"

I've Googled the heck out of this, but I haven't been able to find a solution that works. SELinux is disabled, so that can't be the problem. Any suggestions?

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>

<Directory "/archive/www/html">

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    AllowOverride All

    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

</Directory>

[thamaravelilpg]

Post a ls -l of the source and target directories. pls.

[alfmarius]

+1 on this one

My situation is basicly the same, though it works on a symlink that is in the document root, but not on symlinks elsewhere in the hierarchy.

httpd.conf has the "same" settings as Ben:

DocumentRoot /www
..
<Directory /www/>
Options -Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None Options
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

File: -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1344 2008-07-15 15:49 q.gif
Link1: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root [..] /www/q.gif -> images/test/q.gif
Link2: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root [..] /www/images/q.gif -> test/q.gif

In firefox 3:
* http://server/q.gif ..shows the gif (304 in apache log)
* http://server/images/q.gif ..gives "Not Found (404 in apache log)

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I believe these problems might have the same solution

[Ben Cotton]

Post a ls -l of the source and target directories. pls.

target (from DocumentRoot (/archive/shared/www/html/ )):
0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 bcotton archive 48 2008-07-12 14:54 jennifer_and_nick -> /archive/shared/photos/family/jennifer_and_nick/

source:
[1156 bcotton@boone /archive/www/html ]$ ls -al /archive/shared/photos/family/jennifer_and_nick/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 4 bcotton archive 4096 2008-07-10 20:42 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 bcotton archive 4096 2008-06-26 00:16 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 bcotton archive 4096 2008-06-26 00:17 shower
drwxr-xr-x 2 bcotton archive 4096 2008-07-10 20:42 wedding


Unlike alfmarius, it doesn't work in document root either, although in my Googling I did see that was a common issue.

[thamaravelilpg]

in your httpd.conf file, what do you have set for the following values?

User http
Group http

thanks.

[Ben Cotton]

in your httpd.conf file, what do you have set for the following values?

User apache
Group apache

I see what you're getting at, and I could have sworn I already tried it, but apparently I didn't. Changing the Group to 'archive' fixes the problem.

Thanks much, now my mom will stop asking me when she gets to see the pictures.

[thamaravelilpg]

Glad it worked! I've done an apache setup about a million times...and each time I do it it's been long enough for me to forget all the little config changes it needs.

cheers

philip

[alfmarius]

Nice you got it working Ben!

..unfortunately I didn't

I did some more testing, and i must say I'm maby more confused now, because when i tried to reconstruct my problem with new directories and links i couldn't! Here is my newst test results:


The stuff that doesn't work:

> pwd
/data/www

> ls -ld /data/www/
drwxrwxrwx 14 www-data www-data 4096 2008-07-16 12:55 /data/www/

> ls -ld /data/www/GameBase/
drwxr-xr-x 7 www-data www-data 4096 2008-07-16 12:53 /data/www/GameBase/

> ls -ld /data/www/GameBase/images/
drwxr-xr-x 9 www-data www-data 4096 2008-07-16 12:51 /data/www/GameBase/images/

> ls -ld /data/www/GameBase/images/p.gif
-rwxr-xr-x 1 www-data www-data 1344 2008-07-16 12:51 /data/www/GameBase/images/p.gif

> ln -s /data/www/GameBase/images/
> ls -l images
lrwxrwxrwx 1 www-data www-data 26 2008-07-16 12:59 images -> /data/www/GameBase/images/

http://server/GameBase/images/p.gif -> works! log: "GET /GameBase/images/p.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -
http://server/images/p.gif ->  does not work! log: "GET /images/p.gif HTTP/1.1" 404 283

I reconstructed the scenario with new dirs, and then it works!

> ls -ld /data/www/test1/
drwxr-xr-x 3 www-data www-data 4096 2008-07-16 12:14 /data/www/test1/

> ls -ld /data/www/test1/test2/
drwxr-xr-x 3 www-data www-data 4096 2008-07-16 12:20 /data/www/test1/test2/

> ls -ld /data/www/test1/test2/p.gif
-rwxr-xr-x 1 www-data www-data 1344 2008-07-16 12:14 /data/www/test1/test2/p.gif

> ln -s /data/www/test1/test2/
> ls -l test2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 www-data www-data 22 2008-07-16 13:07 test2 -> /data/www/test1/test2/

http://server/test1/test2/p.gif -> works! log: "GET /test1/test2/p.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 - 
http://server/test2/p.gif ->  works! log: "GET /test2/p.gif HTTP/1.1" 304 -

To my eyes these are identical cases, but one work and the other doesn't. Please help me out, see what i cannot see!

[Ben Cotton]

You're right. From what I can see, it looks like these two cases should behave identically. I assume your httpd.conf has both User and Group set to www-data?

[alfmarius]

You're right. From what I can see, it looks like these two cases should behave identically. I assume your httpd.conf has both User and Group set to www-data?

You are correct. Forgot to meniton it. Its incredible this doesn't work (and a tad frustrating), I look forward to someone telling me whats up, so I can slap my forhead and say "ahhh, of course, what was I thinking!"