Fixing 403 Forbidden on alias directory with Apache

I was having this issue on OS X too. It turned out gliptak was right, but I've some more detail to add.

We're both attempting to configure a virtual directory for a folder under a user's home folder; I think this is why we're having the problem. In my case, I had the following setup:

• Home folder is /Users/calrion.
• Virtual directory folder is /Users/calrion/Path/to/www.
• There's a symlink /Users/calrion/Path pointing to /Volumes/Other/Users/calrion/Path.

The problem was the user and group _www (which Apache runs as on OS X) lacked execute access to /Users/calrion and /Volumes/Other/Users/calrion.

Running chmod o+x /Users/calrion and chmod o+x /Volumes/Other/Users/calrion resolved the issue (on OS X 10.7.4).

The rule here is that Apache requires execute access to all folders in the path in order to serve files. Without this, you'll get a HTTP 403 (forbidden).

The last straw ;) Required local in the Directory Entry...

like

<Directory "/Users/user/Documents/example">   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews   AllowOverride All   Require local   Order allow,deny   Allow from all</Directory>

if everything else doesn't work (correct Alias, Directory Entry in httpd.conf and correct mod/usr/grp).

keep in mind: if you put your site in user-space the apache user (running httpd) needs access to your home!

Check permission on /Users/user/Documents/, /Users/user/ (higher level permissions are enforced first ...)

/bin/su into the user running Apache (like www, www-data) and cat a file in the /Users/user/Documents/example directory. That might point you to permission problems with your setup.