LinuxQuestions.org - I Fixed Apache 403 Forbidden Problem, but how?

For the past few days I've been trying to allow visitors to browse the directories on my server (Apache 2.0.48), for example a /pictures directory. I kept receiving the 403 Forbidden problem that seemed so common on these forums. I finally fixed the problem, but I still don't really know what I did to fix it. Let me start with what I did to get there.

I tried all the tips I could find on this site and others such as doing "chmod 755" on the /srv/www/htdocs/pictures directory and in fact I think I ended up doing it on every directory, but that didn't work.

I also tried adding a few lines in the .conf file that read...

Code:

<Directory "/srv/www/htdocs/pictures">

  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

  Order allow,deny

  Allow from all

</Directory>

That didn't work either, still gave me the 403 Forbidden error. I should mention that I could access a file based on a direct link, but not general directory browsing.

Next I tried using a virtual host as...

Code:

<VirtualHost shosterman.dyndns.org>

  DocumentRoot "/srv/www/htdocs/"

  Options Indexes

</VirtualHost>

That didn't work either, but then again I'm not exactly sure what a virtual host does. :)

I don't have an .htaccess file so I skipped most of the how-to's that involved that.

These settings were default in there already and I spent several hours toying around with different configurations, but never succeeded.

Code:

<Directory "/srv/www/htdocs">

  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

  AllowOverride None

  Order allow,deny

  Allow from all

</Directory>

So finally, what I did to get it working was I added this code in...

Code:

<Location />

  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI

  AllowOverride None

</Location>

All this time I have never seen the word Location used, I only tried it after a friend suggested changing the word Directory to Location. He was as surprised as I was that it worked because he said these were supposed to be interchangeable.

After checking the apache website for Location, I found this explanation, but it doesn't help me understand why it worked and Directory did not.

Anyway, I was looking for some help why making that switch solved my problem. More importantly though, I'm hoping this might help out others stuck with the same problem.

Stephen