Apache HTTPD: "client denied by server configuration: .htaccess" Even When .htaccess is Blank

Question

• Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
• Apache HTTP Server 2.2.15 (32-bit)
• PHP 5.3.2 (32-bit)

httpd.conf is default except I uncommented the line for mod_rewrite and the one that loads httpd-vhosts.conf, which looks like this:

#
# Virtual Hosts
#
# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.
#
# Please see the documentation at 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/vhosts/>
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.
#
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host
# configuration.

<Directory "D:/Path/To/Sites">
  Options Indexes
  Order Deny,Allow
  Allow from all
</Directory>

#
# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost *:80

#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not
# match a ServerName or ServerAlias in any <VirtualHost> block.
#
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "D:/Path/To/Site 1"
    ServerName site1.local
    ServerAlias www.site1.local
    ErrorLog "logs/site1.local-error.log"
    LogLevel debug
    CustomLog "logs/site1.local-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "D:/Path/To/Sites/Site 2"
    ServerName site2.local
    ServerAlias www.site2.local
    ErrorLog "logs/site2.local-error.log"
    LogLevel debug
    CustomLog "logs/site2.local-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
   DocumentRoot "D:/Program Files (x86)/Apache Software Foundation/Apache2.2/htdocs"
   ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

Windows hosts file forwards site1.local and site2.local to 127.0.0.1.

When trying to access site2.local, .htaccess is clearly being ignored. In site2.local-error.log, the ONLY error each time I try to access it is this:

[Wed Jul 21 17:57:06 2010] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] client denied by server configuration: D:/Path/To/Sites/Site 2/.htaccess

But, even when I delete everything in .htaccess, I still get the same error. Moving Directory inside VirtualHost makes no difference; nor does moving the contents of Site 2 to htdocs.

Solution

Apparently the .htaccess wasn't being read because I didn't allow configuration overrides; if I added "AllowOverride All" to my Virtual Hosts Directory, it worked—except for mod_rewrite, due to the following error:

Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden

After I added in Options FollowSymLinks everything worked.

Final code:

<Directory "D:/Path/To/Sites">
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  AllowOverride All
  Order Deny,Allow
  Allow from all
</Directory>