Problems with SSI on OS X 10.5 desktop version

Question

I just upgraded (format and install) to 10.5.4 and I went to enable server side includes. I uncommented the two lines
AddType text/html .shtml
AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
and I added index.shtml to the DirectoryIndex line as well as adding Includes to the options line.
I then rebooted expecting it to work. This is all it took for 10.4. It didn't and I am not sure where to go from here since I am not really an apache guy. I have repeatedly googled this problem and tried several things and combinations of directives. I ended up restoring the original httpd.conf file from time machine and just redoing it from the directions that are supposed to work.
Does anybody have a suggestion?? This generally just works. Is there a way I can post my conf file for people to look at?
Thanks!

Answer 1

Two things to check:
1) Is the includes module actually enabled?
Just saying you want to use includes isn't enough - if the includes module (that actually does the work) isn't running, you won't see any difference.
Look for the line:
LoadModule include_module libexec/apache2/mod_include.so
in /etc/apache2/httpd.conf and make sure it is not commented out (includes a leading #)
2) Are you working in a directory where Includes are allowed?
By default, for security reasons, includes are disallowed even if the includes module is running. You need an Options statement that allows +Includes. For example:
<Directory />
  Options FollowSymLinks
</Directory>
<Directory /subdir>
  Options +Includes
</Directory>
The above statements do not allow Include statements in pages anywhere on the site other than in the /subdir directory. You'll note that the <Directory /subdir> has a Options +Includes statement which tells Apache to add the Includes ability to this subdirectory.
If you want to add Includes ability through your entire site, you can add Includes to the top >Directory> block, but be aware of the implications of doing this.