RE: [cobalt-users] Client nets without the ~ (Tilde) ??

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:57 AM 2/15/00 +0100, you wrote:

> >The way I'd do this would be to create, inside of the "web" subdirectory
> >for <www.abc.com>, a link to the user's web directory.
>
> I already tried that, but it doesn't work.

I've used this method for many years.  Now I have to look and see why it 
doesn't work on the Raq...

> The link appears well and works ok from the shell, but the web the server
> issues a "You do not have permission to access the requested file on this
> server. " for www.abc.com/user .
> I tried to change the owner of the link to httpd and the users name but that
> did not help.

Okay, just found it <smile>...

You need "Option FollowSymLinks" enabled in Apache for the site's main 
"web" directory.  Note that this opens a security hole, see "The Apache 
Server Bible, Kabir, IDG Books, page 48.

Once you've got option FollowSymLinks enabled, you need a symbolic link in 
the site's main "web" directory, for each user, linking to the user's "web" 
directory.

Are you still sure you want to do this <smile>?

> Any further suggestions?

This one's quite a bit more secure:  Put the actual users' web directories 
under the site's web directory.  Call them each by the user's individual 
name (not "web"), and make them owned by the user, but with world-readable 
rights (so they can be read by the web).

In other words:

.
...www.sitename.com
     .
     ...username1
     .
     ...username2
     .
     ...(etc.)

Then, in each user's individual directories, put a symbolic link to the 
directory you've just created:

 # link -s  /home/sites/username1 web

Jeff

--
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>