RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

When I try to use RewriteEngine in an .htaccess file--

RewriteEngine On

--the page produces a 403 error. I've even tried--

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

--and--

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule html html

but this gives me the same result. The specifics of the error are:

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

Clearly, I'm just trying to get RewriteEngine to work at a basic
setting, before I get into any real funkiness.

(Some background:

The final destination for my site is on an apache server that I don't
administrate, which is why I use .htaccess.

I've duplicated these limitations in a development server on my
computer. In DEV, I've loaded the mod_rewrite.so module into my
server's httpd.config file. Then I stopped and restarted the server.

With or without this module, my site works fine. It's only once I turn
the RewriteEngine on that I begin to get errors.)

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

I'd check your httpd.conf file, and check the options for your
AllowOverride. AuthConfig should be enabled in AllowOverride. You
should have line in the file that looks like the following:

AllowOverride AuthConfig

Give that a shot, and see if it works for you.

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

When I do that, I get a 500 error, regardless of the RewriteEngine.

This is what my directory settings look like:


Order allow,deny
AllowOverride Options FileInfo
AllowOverride AuthConfig
Allow from all

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

Are you getting any error messages in your Apache httpd error log file?

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

Sorry about that, I needed to go back and reread your original post. .
.. I'm looking into this problem, I had the exact same thing going on
with my system, now I need to look back to find what I changed to fix
it.

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

A thing to double check is to ensure that mod_rewrite is enabled. Can
you verify that mod_rewrite is enabled via a httpd -l ?

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

Ok, I found it. You need to ensure that under the "Options" directive,
you have FollowSymLinks set.

i.e.

Options +FollowSymLinks

Re: RewriteEngine causes 403 Forbidden error

Bingo. That did it.

Thanks, Mike.

--E.