apache won't index folder from another mount
There are several things that could be changed in your configuration. In order to help you, I'm providing here the following guide, based on the default Apache2's configuration.
Deal with the file system permissions
In order to access the files, the Apache's user www-data
needs to have read permissions to the files and read-execute permissions to the directories, also in this number read-execute permissions to the whole path. If you do not have any special requirements, I would suggest you to use the other users permissions.
Let's assume the directory you want to index via the web server is named bar
and it is located in the home directory of the user foo
. By default he directories /home
and /home/foo
must have 755
permissions. The last bit in the octal number 755
means all other users have read-execute permissions (content rad access) to the files inside /home/foo
.
So let's create our directory /home/foo/bar
and let's assure it (and its path) has r-x
permissions for the other users:
mkdir -p /home/foo/bar # create the directory
find /home/foo/bar -type d -exec chmod o+rx {} + # apply o+rx for the dirs recursively
sudo chmod o+rx /home /home/foo # this step is optional
Now let's create three test files and assure they have read permissions for the other users:
touch /home/foo/bar/file.{1..3} # create three empty test files
find /home/foo/bar -type f -exec chmod o+r {} + # apply o+r for the files recursively
In order to allow www-data
to write content in /home/foo/bar
you can change the group ownership of the directory and add rwxs
group permissions (more details):
find /home/foo/bar -type d -exec chgrp www-data {} +
find /home/foo/bar -type d -exec chmod g+rwxs {} +
Test by creating another three empty files:
sudo -u www-data touch /home/foo/bar/file.{4..6}
Deal with the Apache's configuration
By default, within the main configuration file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
, for security reasons, the access to the root directory /
is restricted. I would suggest you to do not override these rules via the virtual host configuration and remove <Directory />
tags (and the enclosed directives).
In particular, if you are creating an Alias to a directory outside of your DocumentRoot
, you may need to explicitly permit access to the target directory (source Apache Module mod_alias).
Let's first create .htpasswd
file with enough permissions (add more security by using 2FA - p.6):
htpasswd -c /home/foo/.htpasswd foo # authentication for the username 'foo'
chmod 400 /home/foo/.htpasswd # restricted the permissions
sudo chown www-data:www-data /home/foo/.htpasswd # change the ownership
According to the above, the relevant part of you virtual host configuration file should be something like this:
<VirtualHost *:80>
# Other configuration directives
Alias "/bar" "/home/foo/bar"
<Directory "/home/foo/bar">
#Require all granted
Options +Indexes +MultiViews +FollowSymLinks
IndexOptions +FancyIndexing
# Allow using of a .htaccess files
AllowOverride All
# This section could be moved in .htaccess file
<IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
<IfModule mod_authn_file.c>
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Type some hints here..."
AuthUserFile /home/foo/.htpasswd
</IfModule>
Require valid-user
</IfModule>
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>
Enable the relevant modules and restart Apache2 to apply the new configuration:
sudo a2enmod authz_core authz_user authn_file
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
Sample result
Update:
I'm assuming the problem belongs to file system's permissions issue. Probably the most easiest way, to solve it, is to mount the target directory inside the DocumentRoot directory by using bindfs
as it is described in this answer.
Working solution:
Here's the final solution: abandon the idea of getting Alias to work correctly for my externally mounted folder and instead take @pa4080's workaround advice and usebindfs
to mount the folder to /blah2 in the webroot. I was unsuccessful in getting /etc/fsab to correctly initialize my bind, so I decided to write an init script for the task.
First, install bindfs:
apt-get update
apt-get install bindfs
mkdir /var/www/example.com/blah2
Next I created a script file /var/www/scripts/blahbind.sh
to be run on startup:
#!/bin/bash
bindfs -o force-user=www-data,perms=a=rX /blah1/blah2 /var/www/example.com/blah2
Then give it correct permissions:
chmod 750 /var/www/scripts/blahbind.sh
chmod +x /var/www/scripts/blahbind.sh
Next I created a service script:
vi /etc/systemd/system/blahbind.service
With the contents:
[Unit]
Requires=mydrive.mount
After=mydrive.mount
Description=bind /blah1/blah2 to example.com/blah2 folder
[Service]
ExecStart=/var/www/scripts/blahbind.sh
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Note, mydrive.mount
should be replaced with the drive of the /blah1/blah2
folder. Get a list of mounts with systemctl list-units --type=mount
.
Confirm that the service script works by running
sudo service blahbind start
Then enable the service to persist on reboot with:
sudo systemctl enable blahbind.service
And then, my simplified Location block, sans Alias
in example.com.conf
<Location /blah2>
Options +Indexes +MultiViews +FollowSymLinks
IndexOptions +FancyIndexing
</Location>
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user255406
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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user255406 almost 2 years
I'm trying to enable directory listing for a folder outside the web root, from a different local ext4 mount that uses Basic Authentication, but I'm getting an empty list and no logged errors. What's strange is that if I put in the known location of a file under this directory in my browser, it downloads the file just fine.
Here's my
example.conf
file:<virtualhost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] ServerName example.com ServerAlias www.example.com DirectoryIndex index.php DocumentRoot /var/www/example.com <Directory /> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All </Directory> LogLevel warn ErrorLog /var/apachelogs/error.log CustomLog /var/apachelogs/access.log combined Alias /blah2 "/blah1/blah2" <Location /blah2> Options +Indexes +MultiViews +FollowSymLinks IndexOptions +FancyIndexing </Location> </virtualhost>
And here's my
.htaccess
AuthType Basic AuthName "Authentication Required" AuthUserFile "/home/myusername/.htpasswd" Require valid-user
Also, I've commented
IndexIgnore
out in/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/autoindex.conf
#IndexIgnore .??* *~ *# RCS CVS *,v *,t
I've run
chmod -R 755 /blah1/blah2
, andchgrp -R www-data /blah1/blah2
andchmod a+x -R /blah1/blah2
. The folder owner is a member of www-data. If I runsudo usermod -a -G www-data myusername
I can browse and read all files and folders just fine.Doing some testing, my configuration works fine if I move /blah1/blah2 under my home directory and change the alias. There's something about it being on another mount that is messing up mod_autoindex, even though apache can clearly read the files themselves. Removing authentication doesn't help. With
LogLevel warn
I get no logged errors. After changing my LogLevel to trace4, here's my error log.Here's the mount line from
/etc/fstab
:UUID=[theuuid] /blah1 ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,errors=remount-ro 0 0
EDIT Last note: confirming that www-data can read and write to my folder, I made the following php script:
<?php mkdir ("testdir"); var_dump(scandir('.')); ?>
The result: directory testdir is created with owner www-data:www-data, and the list of directories and files is dumped as a variable.
EDIT2 I've run the following commands to set permissions correctly:
chmod 755 /blah1/blah2 chmod 755 /blah1 find /blah1/blah2 -type d -exec chgrp www-data {} + find /blah1/blah2 -type d -exec chmod o+rx {} + find /blah1/blah2 -type d -exec chmod g+rwxs {} +
Still the same result.
-
Michal Przybylowicz almost 5 yearsWhat about using
LogLevel debug
and then checking log files? -
user255406 almost 5 yearsNo new info with debug. pastebin.com/xu1bUuvB
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abu-ahmed al-khatiri almost 5 yearsBased on your logs. I think your issue is the index cannot access your .htaccess. try to copy the content of .htaccess into <Directory />
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user255406 almost 5 yearsTried that, same result.
-
user255406 almost 5 yearsAlso, removing authentication completely didn't change the end result. It grants everyone access but shows no files.
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abu-ahmed al-khatiri almost 5 years@user255406 the log said
authorization result of Require valid-user : denied (no authenticated user yet)
. That's mean nothing grants access for users, did you addauthBasicProvider file
into <Directory /> -
user255406 almost 5 yearsTo simplify the conversation, here's the error log with LogLevel debug and auth removed. Same result. It's not an auth problem. pastebin.com/bhCqsydg
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user255406 almost 5 years@Lety I have the fstab entry above and the chmod commands above. Can you explain how I'd verify this further?
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Dan almost 5 yearsHave you tried using
<Directory /blah1/blah2>
instead of<Location /blah2>
? -
user255406 almost 5 yearsYes, no change.
-
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user255406 almost 5 yearsThanks for the comprehensive explanation. If I follow your tutorial for a directory in my home folder it works perfectly, but if that folder is on another mounted drive I get the same result. I added the code I ran to EDIT2.
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user255406 almost 5 yearsI added the code I added onto EDIT2. apache can execute, but still no dice.
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Kristopher Ives almost 5 yearsExecute rights for the directory, which is listing rights essentially.
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pa4080 almost 5 yearsHello, @user255406, IMO this is permissions issue. I've added a reference to a possible workaround to my answer.
-
user255406 almost 5 yearsUsing the
bindfs
workaround, I was able to get everything working correctly. To me, this says it's not really a permissions issue at all. -
user255406 almost 5 yearsUltimately, the workaround is a working solution for me. Would you like to expand your Update section to explain the method here? (I used bindfs and added mounting it as a systemd service to bring it up on reboot)
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pa4080 almost 5 yearsHi, @user255406, I would like to expand the update section, I will have an access to a computer tomorrow morning. You are welcome, if you want to add some update to the answer, Stack Exchange is a team game at all :)