Just discovered that when you create an apache alias in Server
Admin | Web | Sites | Settings | Aliases, then hit Save, it gets
converted to lowercase regardless what case letters you type or
paste in. So /Library/WebServer/Documents... becomes /library/
webserver/documents... The result is that some aliases return 403
Forbidden errors to the browser. Editing the site's config file
manually and restarting apache leaves the case intact, and the
alias works fine.
Here's the punchline: Not only does Server Admin change the case of
the alias you're currently creating, but it lowercases ALL aliases
in ALL config files in /etc/httpd/sites/* . So the fact that I
created an alias on one site last night resulted in the webmaster
of another site running off my server being woken up at 5am to
hear that his site was broken.
I don't recall this happening before - is this a new bug in 10.4.6
or 10.4.7 (or did I just never hit a problem with this before)? For
now I'm going to steer clear of Server Admin for this task and
just create them manually when needed.
What I don't understand is why this should break sites - isn't HFS
+ case-respecting but case-insensitive? Is case sensitivity a
separate apache option somewhere?
This is a really annoying problem that i have filed a bug report on.
It has happened for as long as I can remember in 10.4.x since we have
lots of aliases and some very detailed Apache configuration changes
that are not exposed in the GUI. Here is why the problem this problem
is likely occurring for you and others:
The 403 error is occurring because the "indexes" directive is not
turned on for that particular folder. Basically this occurs when you
load a folder, but there is no default file (like index.html, etc).
If indexes is turned on it will show a directory listing, if it is
not then it will 403. This is the default behavior because there is a
directive in the httpd.conf file that looks like this:
This basically turns off all options (including directory listing
etc.) for all folders. It is a good safety net and basically makes
sure that you turn on options explicitly for necessary folders
THEN, you'll see a listing for the default root of the website. In
the case of a virgin install it looks something like this:
<Directory "/Library/WebServer/Documents">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
I've filtered out the comments for brevity. Notice that it has turned
on indexes for all subsequent folders from this root. And also
MultiViews
The rub is that when you have something like this:
Alias foo /library/webserver/documents/abcd
Which creates the alias, Server admin (As you stated) uses all lower
case regardless of what you typed in. HOWEVER this does not match up
with the <Directory> directive shown earlier. This also CAN happen
when you change the DocumentRoot.
The real issue is that though HFS is case-insensitive, so it will
FIND the folder /library/webserver/documents and thus be able to load
the file, Apache IS case sensitive when it comes to <Directory>
directives. So in short, the <Directory "/Library/WebServer/
Documents"> directive never gets "processed" for that alias because
it does not match the case "/library/webserver/documents"
This of course applies to any sort of <Directory> matching and
options that you may include in that section, like indexes,
directoryindex and other apache directives.
A solution (this would require changes to Apache) would be to have a
directive that turns off case sensitivity for directory matching.
Until then, you have to fix those things by hand and NEVER EVER touch
the web panel of server admin. Bummer eh? I am unaware of such an
option.
This issue makes using any apache install with Xsan require hand
editing since Xsan volumes are case sensitive. OR always use lower
case (which stinks if you have an existing mixed case deployment).
Hope this clears things up. Please file an additional bug report on
this so it gets the attention it deserves!
-Pete-
Peter Akins
Applications Analyst & Adjunct Instructor
College of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning
University of Cincinnati
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