Apache giving a Directory index forbidden by rule: /Users/me/Music/iTune

Question

I am trying to configure Apache to display my iTunes folders so that I can download them to my Playstation 3. The Playstation 3 either gives me a network error, or a "Directory index forbidden by rule: /Users/me/Music/iTunes/" in Apache. The network error on the PS3 seems to occur when Bonjour (?) rewrites the system name (I have entered the IP address) to "george-smiths-computer.local", since the playstation 3 doesn't know how to find this address.
My rules in httpd.conf seem to be OK, so the second Directory error doesn't make sense:
Alias /iTunes/ "/Users/me/Music/iTunes/"
<Directory "/Users/me/Music/iTunes/">
Options +Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
If I put index.html in the directory apache will find and display it, but still no directory index.
I have a workaround by copying the files to /usr/share/httpd/icons, which DOES show the index:
<Directory "/usr/share/httpd/icons">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!
Dave

Answer 1

Hi--
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
I played around with Apache and came up with a couple of things to look at. I can get it to give me the Hi--
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
I played around with Apache and came up with a couple of things to look at. I can get it to give me the Directory index forbidden by rule: /Users/me/Music/iTunes/ error in the log if I mess up the Directory block by forgetting to put a quotation mark at the head of the block:
<Directory /Users/charlie/Music/iTunes/">
Also, I can get Apache to show me the 403 error if I have the case wrong on a directory in the path. In other words, if I did "Me" instead of "me" (assuming the home directory really is "me", I get a 403 error. But, strangely enough, it doesn't log it in the error log. So take a real close look at your paths in that directive (I'm assuming you didn't just copy and paste them out, since "me" seems like an unlikely user name).
The "redirect" to the Bonjour name is more likely a result of content negotiation. I'd guess you're asking for the directory without a trailing "/" character. When that happens, Apache does a redirect to the same directory, but adds the trailing "/". You should be able to get around this by always specifying the "/" in the URL. You might also want to look in the Apache Docs at both the ServerName and UseCanonicalName directives.
For example, if you don't care about redirects always working sensibly from outside your network (i.e., the Internet), you could always set the ServerName directive to the IP address of your server inside the LAN. And you could turn off UseCanonicalName, too. That would keep it from trying to use the Bonjour name to construct URLs in situations where it does these redirects.
charlie
P.S.--Make sure you back up your http.conf file before you do a lot of hacking at it, just in case. You can always copy in the default, but it's a hassle if you've already done some successful customization...