Apache won't start with spaces in pathname in httpd.conf (even with quotes)

Question

Problem

Apache won't start if there are spaces in the pathname in a virtual host configuration.

The usual solution is to just wrap the pathname in double quotes, but that doesn't fix it.

I WANT to have spaces in my pathname, so changing to dashes or what not isn't really an option.

The VERY same configuration as below without spaces works.

Sample

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "C:/Users/Patrick/Google Drive/Projects/My Project"
    ServerName local.example.com
    ServerAlias local.example.com
    <Directory "C:/Users/Patrick/Google Drive/Projects/My Project">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI Includes
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        <IfModule mod_php5.c>
            php_admin_flag engine on
            # choose the one you want:
            # This is for E_ALL & ~E_STRICT & ~E_DEPRECATED
            # php_admin_value error_reporting 22527
            # This is for E_ERROR
            php_admin_value error_reporting 1
        </IfModule>
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Solution 1

did you try DocumentRoot "C:/Users/Patrick/Google\ Drive/Projects/My\ Project" ?

Solution 2

I got it working by using DOS 8.3 paths:

c:/users/patric~1/google~1/projec~1/myproj~1

You can see the DOS path by using dir /x on the command line.

Comments

[developdaly]

That did the trick! I'll accept in 10 minutes when it lets me.

[developdaly]

Well, I spoke too soon. Apache DOES start, but then I get a 403 when trying to pull the site up in the browser.

[Wesley Smith]

What does this even mean?