Question

Directory index forbidden by rule -- Problem

Asked by: choccarlm

I've just installed apache, and if I put in

http://www.website.com/, it says "Forbidden", put if I put in http://www.website.com/index.html, it works??

Also I have a directory called "htdocs" and within that is a file called "index.php". If I put in the browser:

http://www.website.com/htdocs/index.php

It comes back with "Page cannot be displayed" although the path is correct.

When I look in the error_log, nothing appears for the second statemant "/htdocs/index.php" but with the first error (http://www.website.com/") the error log shows the following error:

Directory index forbidden by rule

What does mean, and what can I do to resolve it?

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Asked On
2002-07-04 at 07:46:42ID20319588
Tags

forbidden

,

index

,

directory

,

rule

Topic

Apache Web Server

Participating Experts
6
Points
0
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: samriPosted on 2002-07-04 at 20:08:45ID: 7130963

Choccarlm,

Forbidden is due to the default config for apache is to be quite restrictive.  You would need to enable directory browsing to allow it.
Check apache FAQ:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#forbidden
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#malfiles

Please could you post the config portion that has
DocumentRoot directive.

Mine is on Win32, but it should be OK.

DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs"

2nd part of the quesstion: http://www.website.com/htdocs/index.php should have been http://www.website.com/index.php

Remember that htdocs is a Root for your website (/), anything below that directory would have (/dir1, /dir2), and the url would be http://www.website.com/dir1/, etc.

If you want to have index.php to be your default directory index, ie, you would need to type only http://www.websites.com/ (and not http://www.website.com/index.php), look at DirectoryIndex directive.  By default, I believe it is;

DirectoryIndex index.html

My example; the following would make the default indexfile to be index.cgi if it exist, next index.php, index.html, etc.

DirectoryIndex index.cgi index.php index.html index.htm index.html.var

You would need to have mod_dir (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_dir.html) loaded.

I hope this help.

cheers.

 

by: ahoffmannPosted on 2002-07-05 at 02:58:27ID: 7131532

you simply need in httpd.conf:

  Options Indexes

for / directory

 

by: choccarlmPosted on 2002-07-08 at 01:20:57ID: 7137160

Ok,

http://www.website.com/ now works, but if I put in http://www.website.com/htdocs/index.php, it still says that the page doesnt exist. If I put in http://www.website.com/includes/index.php, it works.

For some reason, it will not allow me to use "htdocs/...". Why would this be?

Thanks

 

by: samriPosted on 2002-07-08 at 02:05:28ID: 7137233

Choccarlm,

Yes, you cannot use /htdocs/index.php.

Does it work if you just use http://www.website.com/index.php ?

Remember that /htdocs is just a folder in /usr/local/apache/, and if you notice there is a directive; somewhere in you httpd.conf (or look for that directive).

DocumentRoot /usr/local/apache/htdocs

This is to tell apache, evertyhing in this directory would be treated as the root (/) of your website.  And any path under that folder would be another path in the URL.

cheers.
Samri

 

by: choccarlmPosted on 2002-07-08 at 02:12:23ID: 7137254

My Document root for this website is

/home/website/

htdocs is a folder within the webiste folder, so it does exist.

If I put in http://www.website.com/, it now works, as does
http://www.website.com/index.php.

I take it I cannot use htdocs as a folder name then?

 

by: samriPosted on 2002-07-08 at 02:38:07ID: 7137292

M,

Hmm... I cannot recall htdocs being so special.  Could you try to create another directory, maybe testdir and try to test.

Btw, do you have any files under htdocs?  Is it possibble to access the file http://www.domain.com/htdocs/something.html

cheers

 

by: choccarlmPosted on 2002-07-08 at 02:45:23ID: 7137302

My Document root for this website is

/home/website/

htdocs is a folder within the webiste folder, so it does exist.

If I put in http://www.website.com/, it now works, as does
http://www.website.com/index.php.

I take it I cannot use htdocs as a folder name then?

 

by: periwinklePosted on 2003-11-05 at 15:57:17ID: 9691020

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this TA.

I will leave a recommendation in the Cleanup topic area with the following recommendation for this question:

PAQ/Refund (questions not fully answered)

Please leave any comments here within the next seven days.

PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT THIS COMMENT AS AN ANSWER!

periwinkle
EE Cleanup Volunteer

 

by: Computer101Posted on 2003-11-12 at 15:49:24ID: 9735863

PAQed, with points refunded (50)

Computer101
E-E Admin

 

by: webwidePosted on 2004-02-14 at 08:38:02ID: 10361378

This question WAS answered!  samri seems to have answered it (IMHO)

 

by: samriPosted on 2004-02-19 at 03:20:30ID: 10401355

I tought that so...  :(

 

by: lisajsonPosted on 2004-04-07 at 06:43:01ID: 10774712

Is there any way to have the Web users just type in www.website.com instead of www.website.com/ or www.website.com/index.html?

This seems to work on my apache linux machine, but not on my apache windows 2000 machine.

Thanks for any help you can give me!
Lisa

 

by: samriPosted on 2004-04-09 at 02:44:38ID: 10789965

hi Lisa,

>> Is there any way to have the Web users just type in www.website.com instead of www.website.com/ or www.website.com/index.html?

This is among the popular Apache question.

One common solution is to fix the ServerName directive in you httpd.conf (or in the Vhost Container).  Check Apace FAQ here : http://httpd.apache.org/docs/misc/FAQ.html#set-servername

Another thing is to check for DirectoryIndex directive.  It's covered in mod_dir - http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_dir.html (http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_dir.html#directoryindex).

You may need to add

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm

Hope this would help.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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