Can't use symlinks in local /var/www directory

Question

I'm setting up my local LAMP server, and when I go to it, I can't follow symlinks with the Apache user (www-data). At this point, I've tried chowning and chmoding and I've added
Options FollowSymLinks to my httpd.conf file for my DocumentRoot. I'm at a loss.

So here's what I'm going to ask:

If you were setting up your Apache with a standard 11.10 LAMP install, what would be the steps you would take to get symlinks to work correctly for the Apache user?

Answer 1

This sounds like a permissions issue. Make sure that each directory and parent directory that Apache must access (both in /var/www and in the symlinks' target directories) has the global execute bit set.

For example, if your symlinks point to /home/somebody/www, do this:

sudo chmod a+x /var /var/www /home /home/somebody /home/somebody/www

It is not necessary to set read access on any directory; only the files that Apache is supposed to read must have appropriate read permissions.

Answer 2

I would look at the permissions with my pathlld script (http://paste.ubuntu.com/757530/):

An example of pathlld:

walt@aardvark:~(0)$ ll $(type -p emacsclient)  
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 2011-10-23 11:20 /usr/bin/emacsclient -> /etc/alternatives/emacsclient  
walt@aardvark:~(0)$ pathlld $(type -p emacsclient)   
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4096 2011-12-02 04:07 /  
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 2011-10-23 19:29 /usr  
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 135168 2011-12-02 16:03 /usr/bin  
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 2011-10-23 11:20 /usr/bin/emacsclient -> /etc/alternatives/emacsclient  
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23440 2011-08-14 12:41 /usr/bin/emacsclient  
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4096 2011-12-02 04:07 /  
drwxr-xr-x 234 root root 12288 2011-12-02 16:06 /etc  
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 20480 2011-11-29 09:31 /etc/alternatives  
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 2011-10-23 11:20 /etc/alternatives/emacsclient -> /usr/bin/emacsclient.emacs23  
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23440 2011-08-14 12:41 /etc/alternatives/emacsclient  
drwxr-xr-x 27 root root 4096 2011-12-02 04:07 /  
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 2011-10-23 19:29 /usr  
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 135168 2011-12-02 16:03 /usr/bin  
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 23440 2011-08-14 12:41 /usr/bin/emacsclient.emacs23