How to change default document root (www) and cgi-bin to home directory?

Question

I am currently trying out some CGI programming tutorials in C++ in my ubuntu 14 and I have freshly installed apache2 (sudo apt-get install apache2) and it installed properly. http://localhost returned a successful responce and also default document root in var/www/html/ and cgi-bin in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/. The problem is both directories doesn't have permission to write to it and also I don't want to work in those directories. I want to change my default document root to /home/user/www/html/ and cgi-bin inside '/home/user/www/cgi-bin/' because it can be easily accessed.

Searching returned this solution to edit this file /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

my current content is this

<VirtualHost *:80>
    # The ServerName directive sets the request scheme, hostname and port that
    # the server uses to identify itself. This is used when creating
    # redirection URLs. In the context of virtual hosts, the ServerName
    # specifies what hostname must appear in the request's Host: header to
    # match this virtual host. For the default virtual host (this file) this
    # value is not decisive as it is used as a last resort host regardless.
    # However, you must set it for any further virtual host explicitly.
    #ServerName www.example.com

    ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html

    # Available loglevels: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
    # error, crit, alert, emerg.
    # It is also possible to configure the loglevel for particular
    # modules, e.g.
    #LogLevel info ssl:warn

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

    # For most configuration files from conf-available/, which are
    # enabled or disabled at a global level, it is possible to
    # include a line for only one particular virtual host. For example the
    # following line enables the CGI configuration for this host only
    # after it has been globally disabled with "a2disconf".
    #Include conf-available/serve-cgi-bin.conf
</VirtualHost>

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

I changed default document root from DocumentRoot /var/www/html to DocumentRoot /home/user/www/html and changed file here also /etc/apache2/apache2.conf [user is our system username]

from

<Directory /var/www/>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

to

<Directory /home/user/www/>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

and restarted the server sudo service apache2 restart. I then added a small index file (index.html) to /home/user/www/html

<html>
<body>
hello world
</body>
</html>

But when I tried to access through html http://localhost it returned 403 forbidden error.

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80

What is causing this error and now how should I also change cgi-bin directory?

EDIT 1: also tried this method but still not working.

EDIT 2: Still I cant solve my problem so I am providing here the content of /etc/apache2/apache2.conf`

# This is the main Apache server configuration file.  It contains the
# configuration directives that give the server its instructions.
# See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/ for detailed information about
# the directives and /usr/share/doc/apache2/README.Debian about Debian specific
# hints.
#
#
# Summary of how the Apache 2 configuration works in Debian:
# The Apache 2 web server configuration in Debian is quite different to
# upstream's suggested way to configure the web server. This is because Debian's
# default Apache2 installation attempts to make adding and removing modules,
# virtual hosts, and extra configuration directives as flexible as possible, in
# order to make automating the changes and administering the server as easy as
# possible.

# It is split into several files forming the configuration hierarchy outlined
# below, all located in the /etc/apache2/ directory:
#
#   /etc/apache2/
#   |-- apache2.conf
#   |   `--  ports.conf
#   |-- mods-enabled
#   |   |-- *.load
#   |   `-- *.conf
#   |-- conf-enabled
#   |   `-- *.conf
#   `-- sites-enabled
#       `-- *.conf
#
#
# * apache2.conf is the main configuration file (this file). It puts the pieces
#   together by including all remaining configuration files when starting up the
#   web server.
#
# * ports.conf is always included from the main configuration file. It is
#   supposed to determine listening ports for incoming connections which can be
#   customized anytime.
#
# * Configuration files in the mods-enabled/, conf-enabled/ and sites-enabled/
#   directories contain particular configuration snippets which manage modules,
#   global configuration fragments, or virtual host configurations,
#   respectively.
#
#   They are activated by symlinking available configuration files from their
#   respective *-available/ counterparts. These should be managed by using our
#   helpers a2enmod/a2dismod, a2ensite/a2dissite and a2enconf/a2disconf. See
#   their respective man pages for detailed information.
#
# * The binary is called apache2. Due to the use of environment variables, in
#   the default configuration, apache2 needs to be started/stopped with
#   /etc/init.d/apache2 or apache2ctl. Calling /usr/bin/apache2 directly will not
#   work with the default configuration.


# Global configuration
#

#
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# NOTE!  If you intend to place this on an NFS (or otherwise network)
# mounted filesystem then please read the Mutex documentation (available
# at <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#mutex>);
# you will save yourself a lot of trouble.
#
# Do NOT add a slash at the end of the directory path.
#
#ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"

#
# The accept serialization lock file MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL DISK.
#
Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default

#
# PidFile: The file in which the server should record its process
# identification number when it starts.
# This needs to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
#
PidFile ${APACHE_PID_FILE}

#
# Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out.
#
Timeout 300

#
# KeepAlive: Whether or not to allow persistent connections (more than
# one request per connection). Set to "Off" to deactivate.
#
KeepAlive On

#
# MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow
# during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount.
# We recommend you leave this number high, for maximum performance.
#
MaxKeepAliveRequests 100

#
# KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request from the
# same client on the same connection.
#
KeepAliveTimeout 5


# These need to be set in /etc/apache2/envvars
User ${APACHE_RUN_USER}
Group ${APACHE_RUN_GROUP}

#
# HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP addresses
# e.g., www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off).
# The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people
# had to knowingly turn this feature on, since enabling it means that
# each client request will result in AT LEAST one lookup request to the
# nameserver.
#
HostnameLookups Off

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>
# container, error messages relating to that virtual host will be
# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>
# container, that host's errors will be logged there and not here.
#
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

#
# LogLevel: Control the severity of messages logged to the error_log.
# Available values: trace8, ..., trace1, debug, info, notice, warn,
# error, crit, alert, emerg.
# It is also possible to configure the log level for particular modules, e.g.
# "LogLevel info ssl:warn"
#
LogLevel warn

# Include module configuration:
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.conf

# Include list of ports to listen on
Include ports.conf


# Sets the default security model of the Apache2 HTTPD server. It does
# not allow access to the root filesystem outside of /usr/share and /var/www.
# The former is used by web applications packaged in Debian,
# the latter may be used for local directories served by the web server. If
# your system is serving content from a sub-directory in /srv you must allow
# access here, or in any related virtual host.
<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all denied
</Directory>



<Directory /usr/share>
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<Directory /home/user/www/html>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
        #AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

#<Directory /srv/>
#   Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
#   AllowOverride None
#   Require all granted
#</Directory>




# AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory
# for additional configuration directives.  See also the AllowOverride
# directive.
#
AccessFileName .htaccess

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being
# viewed by Web clients.
#
<FilesMatch "^\.ht">
    Require all denied
</FilesMatch>


#
# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive.
#
# These deviate from the Common Log Format definitions in that they use %O
# (the actual bytes sent including headers) instead of %b (the size of the
# requested file), because the latter makes it impossible to detect partial
# requests.
#
# Note that the use of %{X-Forwarded-For}i instead of %h is not recommended.
# Use mod_remoteip instead.
#
LogFormat "%v:%p %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" vhost_combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %O" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

# Include of directories ignores editors' and dpkg's backup files,
# see README.Debian for details.

# Include generic snippets of statements
IncludeOptional conf-enabled/*.conf

# Include the virtual host configurations:
IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

# vim: syntax=apache ts=4 sw=4 sts=4 sr noet

EDIT 3: This is the error log of apache2

[core:error] [pid 16536:tid 139636399695616] (13)Permission denied: [client 127.0.0.1:46221] AH00035: access to / denied (filesystem path '/home/user/www') because search permissions are missing on a component of the path

So I tried to change the permission of my directory and files using chmod +x,644,755 etc.

result of namei -m /home/user/www/html/index.html

 drwxr-xr-x /
 drwxr-xr-x home
 drwx------ user
 drwxr-xr-x www
 drwxr-xr-x html

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '16 at 22:20

I am using Linux Mint 17.1 which is a Ubuntu derivative. I have Apache2 installed by default. In my /etc/apache2 directory I have apache2.conf with the following directive:

# Include module configuration:
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.load
IncludeOptional mods-enabled/*.conf

All this does is tell Apache2 to "include" the configuration directives found in the various files under the /etc/apache2/mods-enabled directory. When I look in the mods-enabled directory, I find a bunch of symlinks to files in the /etc/apache2/mods-available/ directory. For each module Apache2 has been told to load, there are two symlinks: [module].conf and [module].load.

What you need is to enable the userdir module. On my machine I was able to do this simply by creating a symlink in the mods-enabled directory to /etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.conf and userdir.load, then restarting the server. After that I was able to put a basic index.html in /home/user/public_html/ and surf to http://localhost/~user/ to see it in action.

If your apache2 isn't configured using modules loaded in separate directories this way, you can also try adding the userdir directives directly into apache2.conf. This is what they contain on my machine:

<IfModule mod_userdir.c>
    UserDir public_html
    UserDir disabled root

    <Directory /home/*/public_html>
        AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Indexes
        Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
        <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
            Require all granted
        </Limit>
        <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
            Require all denied
        </LimitExcept>
    </Directory>
</IfModule>

There are some security concerns with this configuration you should be aware of, so I would strongly encourage looking over the userdir documentation here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/public_html.html

How to change default document root (www) and cgi-bin to home directory?

1 Answers1