Symlinks in /var/www/html don't work on a 64 bit machine

Question

Strange problem.

I have a 32 bit machine "A" running apache where when I create a symlink to a directory and access that link on the browser, I am able to see the contents of that directory.

But on a 64-bit machine "B" that is running the same version of apache, the page shows "Forbidden" message.

I have created the links as "root" user. I am unable to access the links from either machine as "root" user but as a regular user it works fine.

Why is it that the symlinks work on one and not on the other? Does it have something to with the 32/64-bit machine (although I strongly feel it does not matter).

If I change the permissions of the directory to which I have given the symlinks to, it works from machine B. But I am not actually supposed to change the permissions like that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

you have created the ownership as root, that is the reason it is not accessible.

In apache for it to access a particular directory or files in it for example /var/www/my-site/index.html

then you need to change its ownership to www-data using the command for its directory and files inside it.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/my-site

else you will not be able to access due to permissions problem.