Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /path/httpdocs/news.html

There are a few reasons that can cause this message and this is for people who have ruled out the basics, eg. your symlinks are enabled and the right permissions are applied (but read on to learn about ownership requirements above the directory in question).

So there are a few key things here that cause Apache not to follow symlinks:

1. One directory up for your vhost eg if you have /var/www/html/vhost then html MUST be owned by the httpd/apache user who runs the process.  Otherwise even though access is technically allowed, it will be denied. (even if the files and dirs involved have the right ownership).
2. Make sure you actually have Options +Symlinks in your vhost and/or htaccess
3. Make sure the permissions are correct, you will need read and execute permissions on the file/dir of the symlink or you could get that message

The other solution is to use this option in your vhost or htaccess:

Options -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch

#but be warned the above doesn't seem to work sometimes

 

apache, symlinks, followsymlinks, symbolic, accessible, httpdocs, html, ruled, basics, eg, enabled, permissions, applied, ownership, requirements, directory, vhost, var, www, httpd, user, dirs, htaccess, execute, dir, symlink, symlinksifownermatch, doesn,

Latest Articles