cannot get user directories to work (e.g. /~user)

[Eris Caffee]

> Your home directory needs to have permissions of 755 (rwx-----x) or else

DOH!  I meant 701, not 755.  755 is too permissive, since it would let
everyone read your home directory and see what files you have.  701 just
lets people have execute permission on the directory.  That way they
cannot get a list of your files, but they will be able to access files and
subdirectories that they 1) already know the name of, and 2) have
permissions that allow access.

So if your home directory has permissions 701 and you have files like this:

drwx------   27 eris     wheel        4096 Jun  6 14:27 projects
drwxr-xr-x    3 eris     eris         4096 Apr 17 08:34 www

then other users (including the web server) can access the www directory,
but not the projects directory.

Eris Caffee