FC6 httpd Alias/symbolic link

My DocumentRoot is here:

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve 
your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this 
directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other 
locations.
#
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"


My Aliases look like this:

#
Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"
Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html"
#

What is wrong with the second Alias line above?

#
# 05/23/05: This is now provided via a separate package 
called httpd-manual
# which comes with an own manual alias
Alias /manual "/var/www/manual"

I want to be able to have one or two of my files 
in /var/www/html and the rest of them 
in /home/user_name/public_html

Will this work with Alias or symbolic links?

I have tried both and neither works for me.

On Tuesday 06 March 2007, linuxmaillists(a)charter.net wrote:
>  My DocumentRoot is here:
>
>  #
>  # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve
>  your
>  # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this
>  directory, but
>  # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to
>  other locations.
>  #
>  DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
>
>
>  My Aliases look like this:
>
>  #
>  Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"
>  Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html"
>  #
>
>  What is wrong with the second Alias line above?
>
>  #
>  # 05/23/05: This is now provided via a separate package
>  called httpd-manual
>  # which comes with an own manual alias
>  Alias /manual "/var/www/manual"
>
>  I want to be able to have one or two of my files
>  in /var/www/html and the rest of them
>  in /home/user_name/public_html
>
>  Will this work with Alias or symbolic links?
>
>  I have tried both and neither works for me. 
I have read this several times and it just is not working 
for me.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/public_html.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_userdir.html#userdir
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_alias.html#alias

The text below came from the Apache manual on my local box

The Alias directive allows documents to be stored in the 
local filesystem other than under the DocumentRoot. URLs 
with a (%-decoded) path beginning with url-path will be 
mapped to local files beginning with directory-path.

What does the second sentence above mean?

 # cd /; ln -s / public_html
Accessing http://localhost/~root/

This would allow clients to walk through the entire 
filesystem.

Will some be kind enough to explain how this would work?  
This appears to be what I am trying to do with my user 
directory but it isn't working.

[Tim]

On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 03:59 -0500, linuxmaillists(a)charter.net wrote:
>  I have read this several times and it just is not working 
>  for me.
>  
>  http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/public_html.html
>  http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_userdir.html#userdir
>  http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_alias.html#alias
>  
>  The text below came from the Apache manual on my local box
>  
>  The Alias directive allows documents to be stored in the 
>  local filesystem other than under the DocumentRoot. URLs 
>  with a (%-decoded) path beginning with url-path will be 
>  mapped to local files beginning with directory-path.
>  
>  What does the second sentence above mean? 
It might help if you gave us the URI for where that sentence came from,
but it sounds like one of the techniques used for mass virtual hosting
without lots of individual configurations per host.  Apache can take the
domain name of the request, and use it as the root document directory
for that domain.

e.g. It could map requests for <http://example.com/something.html> and
<http://example.net/else.html> to get their files from
"/var/www/example.com/something.html" and
"/var/www/example.net/else.html"

>   # cd /; ln -s / public_html
>  Accessing http://localhost/~root/
>  
>  This would allow clients to walk through the entire filesystem. 
Not a good idea of something to try.  Though "~/root" would try to use
the root user's homespace, which isn't / but /root.  And that sort of
thing probably won't work as you'd expect if you have SELinux enabled,
as HTML serveable files have to have the right contexts.

It might help if you give a good description of what you're wanting to
do.

-- 
(This PC runs FC4, my others FC5 & FC6, in case that's important
 to the thread)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

[Tim]

On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 01:59 -0500, linuxmaillists(a)charter.net wrote:
>  My DocumentRoot is here:
>  
>  DocumentRoot "/var/www/html" 
The usual place.

>  My Aliases look like this:
>  
>  Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"
>  Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html" 
If you're using the userdirs feature, you don't need to mess with
aliasing it.

i.e. http://localhost/~tim/ refers to /home/tim/public_html/

For that to work, /home/ and /home/tim/ needs to be world executable.
And, /home/tim/public_html/ needs to be world executable and readable,
likewise any files to be served in there need to be world readable.
These are the permissions applied to "other" users.

Also, you may need to change SELinux settings or contexts for those
files.

>  I want to be able to have one or two of my files 
>  in /var/www/html and the rest of them 
>  in /home/user_name/public_html
>  
>  Will this work with Alias or symbolic links? 
You can use aliases, or the userdir direcctive.

-- 
(This box runs FC6, my others run FC4 & FC5, in case that's
 important to the thread.)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

[Manuel Aróstegui]

On Tue, March 6, 2007 07:59, linuxmaillists(a)charter.net wrote:
>  My DocumentRoot is here:
>
>
>  #
>  # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve
>  your # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this
>  directory, but # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other
>  locations. #
>  DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
>
>
>
>  My Aliases look like this:
>
>
>  #
>  Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"
>  Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html"
>  #
>
>
>  What is wrong with the second Alias line above?
>
>
>  #
>  # 05/23/05: This is now provided via a separate package
>  called httpd-manual # which comes with an own manual alias
>  Alias /manual "/var/www/manual"
>
>
>  I want to be able to have one or two of my files
>  in /var/www/html and the rest of them in /home/user_name/public_html
>
>  Will this work with Alias or symbolic links?
>
>
>  I have tried both and neither works for me.
>  
Hi
If you want to use the user's public html path you have to set it up first.

This configuration could do the trick:

UserDir public_html

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
 AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
  Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
 <Limit GET POST OPTIONS PROPFIND>
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
 </Limit>
<Limit PUT DELETE PATCH PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK>
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
</Limit>
</Directory>

Then www.example.com/~user/ should work properly
Hope this helps, all the best.
Manuel.

Thank you Tim and Manuel I got it working

Well I had it working very nicely but it stopped write after 
doing an update.

This is how I set up httpd.conf

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    #
    # UserDir is disabled by default since it can confirm 
the presence
    # of a username on the system (depending on home 
directory
    # permissions).
    #
    UserDir "disable"
    #
    # To enable requests to /~user/ to serve the user's 
public_html
    # directory, use this directive instead of "UserDir 
disable":
    # 
    UserDir public_html
</IfModule>

It would open with this in the address bar 
http://localhost/public_html/
and show my files.  now it has a 404 not found error

Here are the files that were updated

Mar 06 05:32:46 Updated: nss.i386 3.11.5-0.6.1.fc6
Mar 06 05:32:55 Updated: evolution-data-server.i386 
1.8.3-2.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:06 Updated: docbook-style-xsl.noarch 
1.72.0-1.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:07 Updated: nss-devel.i386 3.11.5-0.6.1.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:07 Erased: evolution-data-server-devel
Mar 06 05:33:11 Updated: evolution-data-server-devel.i386 
1.8.3-2.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:12 Updated: nss-tools.i386 3.11.5-0.6.1.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:20 Updated: phpMyAdmin.noarch 2.10.0.2-1.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:23 Updated: kernel-headers.i386 
2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:41 Installed: kernel-devel.i686 
2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6
Mar 06 05:33:58 Installed: kernel.i686 2.6.19-1.2911.6.5.fc6

Could any of them have changed something to cause Apache to 
stop finding my home directory?

I have no clue what to look for now.

[Tim]

On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 07:33 -0500, linuxmaillists(a)charter.net wrote:
>  Well I had it working very nicely but it stopped write after 
>  doing an update.
>  
>  This is how I set up httpd.conf
>  
>  <IfModule mod_userdir.c>
>      #
>      # UserDir is disabled by default since it can confirm the presence
>      # of a username on the system (depending on home directory
>      # permissions).
>      #
>      UserDir "disable"
>      #
>      # To enable requests to /~user/ to serve the user's public_html
>      # directory, use this directive instead of "UserDir disable":
>      # 
>      UserDir public_html
>  </IfModule>
>  
>  It would open with this in the address bar 
>  http://localhost/public_html/
>  and show my files.  now it has a 404 not found error 
Which technique did you use?  Userdirs, or a custom alias?  Above looks
like you used the second.  But you haven't shown us anything else that
you've changed for your customisations, this time.  It might be worth
posting the whole config file, without anything private included.  By
the way, if you're disabling userdirs, write disable without the quotes
around it.

If you used userdirs, then your URL should be along the lines of
<http://example.com/~username/>;.  But if you'd made an alias, then you'd
use something like <http://example.com/aliasname/>;.

After those updates, which I don't know if any would be a cause, check
your config file is still the same as you expect.

-- 
(This PC runs FC4, my others FC5 & FC6, in case that's important
 to the thread)

Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
I read messages from the public lists.

[SOLVED] FC6 httpd Alias/symbolic link

On Tuesday 06 March 2007, Tim wrote:
>  On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 07:33 -0500,  
linuxmaillists(a)charter.net
wrote:
>  > Well I had it working very nicely but it stopped write
>  > after doing an update.
>  >
>  > This is how I set up httpd.conf
>  >
>  > <IfModule mod_userdir.c>
>  >     #
>  >     # UserDir is disabled by default since it can
>  > confirm the presence # of a username on the system
>  > (depending on home directory # permissions).
>  >     #
>  >     UserDir "disable"
>  >     #
>  >     # To enable requests to /~user/ to serve the user's
>  > public_html # directory, use this directive instead of
>  > "UserDir disable": #
>  >     UserDir public_html
>  > </IfModule>
>  >
>  > It would open with this in the address bar
>  > http://localhost/public_html/
>  > and show my files.  now it has a 404 not found error
>
>  Which technique did you use?  Userdirs, or a custom
>  alias?  Above looks like you used the second.  But you
>  haven't shown us anything else that you've changed for
>  your customisations, this time.  It might be worth
>  posting the whole config file, without anything private
>  included.  By the way, if you're disabling userdirs,
>  write disable without the quotes around it.
>
>  If you used userdirs, then your URL should be along the
>  lines of <http://example.com/~username/>;.  But if you'd
>  made an alias, then you'd use something like
>  <http://example.com/aliasname/>;.
>  
It turns out this is what I was using and when I put it back 
in this condition it started working again.

Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html"

I had commited it out thinking UsrDir public_html was what 
was working.

Maybe I will play around later and see if I can figure out 
how to make the UsrDir public_html work.