webserver strangeness.

[Pete Nesbitt]

On July 7, 2004 08:19 pm, Steve wrote:
> Standard ES 3 with httpd
>
> updates applied
>
> I have setup an upload area and enabled WebDAV, I've added an htaccess
> type entry to <Limit> GET requests to anonymous users (anyone can view the
> URLs) and then added a further <Limit> for all other directives to be
> allowed after authenticating only.
>
> The reason for this (as everyone seems to be asking me "why bother" is
> that I need to find an easy way to upload a few thousand photos and add
> them into a gallery, the gallery software allows either "groups of 10
> files to be uploaded" or a URL to be supplied that it will wander off to
> and suck down the photos.
>
> Due to ease of explaining how things work to end users, it was decided to
> create a simple system using webdav so uploads can be done as if the site
> were a hard drive then they put in the URL "uploads.blah.com" into the
> gallery system and it will suck their photos across.
>
> I tried sucessfully to make the DAV folder under the main site but the
> gallery URL suck became confused for some reason and required the images
> to be in the root of the web structure.
>
> It appears that someone within the organisation that sets up the
> httpd.conf decided that disableing indexes by default within apache was
> not enough to stop stupid admins from displaying their directory structure
> to the world (despite the fact that you had to actually enable this option
> to doso) - so they would also do a location rewrite if the url requested
> was the root of the web site and the file served was not one of the
> index files.
>
> #<LocationMatch "^/$>
> #    Options -Indexes
> #    ErrorDocument 403 /error/noindex.html
> #</LocationMatch>
>
> I have since disabled this (IMHO - Braindead) option and restarted apache.
> However, I am still getting a random "forbidden" rule and redirect if I
> try to goto the root of my upload vhost.
>
> My Config for this vhost is..
>
> <Directory "/var/www/vhost/uploads">
>     DAV On
>     Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
>     AllowOverride all
>     AuthType Basic
>     AuthName jany
>     AuthUserFile  /var/www/vhost/htpasswd
>     AuthGroupFile /dev/null
>     <Limit GET>
>      Order allow,deny
>      Allow from all
>     </Limit>
>     <Limit POST PUT CONNECT OPTIONS DELETE PATCH PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL
> COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK>
>      Require valid-user
>     </Limit>
> </Directory>
>
> Document Root is set to..
>
> DocumentRoot /var/www/vhost/uploads
>
> I have just spent the past hour scouring through the httpd.conf file
> trying to find any reference to a redirect to a forbbiden document or an
> index document and I cant find anything. I have set "Indexes" as an option
> on every <Directory> Idirective I can find in the vain hope that it was
> something else.
>
> <rant>
> Whoever in their right mind dreamed up the idea that disabling indexes and
> making it near on impossible to re-enable them needs a freakin bullet to
> the head !!! if an admin makes a concious decision to allow a function to
> happen outside default spec then WHY MAKE IT FREAKIN NEAR ENOUGH TO
> IMPOSSIBLE TO DOSO ?????
> </rant>
>
> Ok, so ranting probably doesnt help but I have hardly any hair left.
>
> god, its things like this that almost make you want to go back to using
> IIS or Apache 1.3 - at least they bloody work !.
>
> --
> Steve.

HI,
This sounds like a configuration problem, not an issue with Apache per-say.

Is your problem with WebDAV access or with browser access or both?

Have you tried this below the DocumentRoot, I remember having a problem trying 
to set up DAV at DocRoot, but it was a while ago and I don't have access to 
the machine right now, so I can't confirm exactly what was the problem (or 
how i resolved it).

Just some thoughts...
-- 
Pete Nesbitt, rhce