I'm trying to run a virtual host on a WAPP stack. My virtual host has the FollowSymLinks
option, but in Windows, all those symbolic links (I'm using shortcuts, and I think this may be the problem) have the .lnk
extension. So if I'm trying to access settings.html
, Apache can't find it because all i have sitting there is settings.html.lnk
. Apologies if my question is unclear.
Asked
Active
Viewed 1.2k times
5

skaffman
- 398,947
- 96
- 818
- 769

Peeaytchpee
- 316
- 1
- 4
- 6
-
symlinks are not shortcuts (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_link#Shortcuts). This is more suited for superuser – Jun 14 '10 at 04:04
-
You are correct. So does anyone know how to implement a symlink for files in Windows? Or am I S.O.L.? – Peeaytchpee Jun 15 '10 at 03:00
2 Answers
12
Apache doesn't understand shortcuts. You need to use a proper symlink. On windows this is accomplished using the command line tool mklink
. See http://ipggi.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/windows-file-junctions-symbolic-links-and-hard-links/ for more details.

hollandlef
- 247
- 2
- 10
-
I made them with `/D`, still it does not work, I got 403. The `/H` is good only for files, the `/J` or a shortcut gives 404. https://superuser.com/questions/1681092/apache-does-not-follow-symlinks-on-windows-403-forbidden – inf3rno Oct 11 '21 at 11:02
1
For security reasons, symlinks aren't followed by default on Apache.
Better than enable it in the config file with "Options FollowSymLinks" you should use
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/urlmapping.html#outside
That's not exactly the answer you expected but may help...

gdoumenc
- 589
- 7
- 10
-
I was struggling with symlinks on Linux. Could not make them work in Apache no matter what. But I tried the method for out-of-root references described in the above Apache doc link and it worked. – David Spector Sep 23 '18 at 13:40
-
Further info: it works when the target is /var/web, but it fails to work if the target is called /var/reuse or /home/reuse. Perhaps "/var/web" is the only place that works for out-of-toot references? This is under cPanel virtual hosting. – David Spector Sep 23 '18 at 14:00