.htaccess Permission Denied (Apache, CentOS 7)

Question

I'm encountering an issue with .htaccess. I have searched through the Internet and all the solutions didn't work. Please help me! Thx!

In the Apache error log, it has the following line:

(13)Permission denied: /[website root]/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable and that '/[website root]/' is executable

It seems that it is just a misconfiguration of file permissions. However, changing the .htaccess file and the website root directory to 755 didn't work. To do an experiment, I changed both the .htaccess and website root to 777, and it didn't work either.

Some people says adding AllowOverride all into the directory settings, I have already set this and neither adding nor deleting works.

I have disabled SElinux, the system environment is CentOS 7.2.1511 + Apache 2.4.6.

Can someone give me some advices please?

I'm thinking that it seems to be an error with file permissions, but it may be an error with something else. Although, I have totally no idea.

Thank you very much!

Solution

According to the Apache wiki this error means you got permission problems with your website root

To diagnose them open a second terminal and issue the following command as root:

su -l apache -s /bin/bash

It will log you as apache user and will allow to find which directory/file is inaccessible by navigating to your website root with

cd /[website root]/
cat .htaccess

if the following command under apache user doesn't display the contents of .htaccess file, you should modify the directory/file permissions or the file's owner to allow access. Try issuing the following as root:

chown apache:apache /[website root]/.htaccess
chmod 755 /[website root]/.htaccess

This should fix the error

Comments

[Qi Xi]

I have found and followed this document, but it didn't help. Thanks any way

[Anubioz]

@qi-xi What does it say when you specify AllowOverride None? Does it work that way?

[Qi Xi]

It didn't have any error messages in that case, but actually I need the .htaccess to be used.

[Anubioz]

try following updated guide