Question

The very first time I try to get to /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome, I get a "403 Forbidden" error: "You don't have permission to access /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome on this server." The error_log shows

(21)Is a directory: access to /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome failed

But if I then go to /twiki/bin/view/, something seems to wake up, and it shows the Main/WebHome page. From then on, if I go to /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome or any other page, it displays fine.

The same holds true for commands other than "view". For example, if I try to edit a page -- any page -- I get a 403 error. But I can wake things up by going to /twiki/bin/edit first. After than, I can edit an y page.

...Oh, and at some point, it all stops working again and I have to invoke each /bin command to wake them up. (I'm guessing this happens when the spawned httpd process I'm talking to goes away, so I'm communicating with a different process and thus have to repeat the steps.)

Does this sound like something I've misconfigured in Apache? It looks like it's taking the extra path info and trying to interpret it as a directory.

That looks like a good guess to me. Double check your script-alias for the twiki/bin dir and the content of the .htaccess there and in the twiki public dir. Of course it could be a bug in the Apache/Darwin release, too. Do you have any other apps that rely on proper path info handling? -- RayMcVay - 26 Jun 2001 No, this is my very first use of path info.

Here's an important new clue: I just called cgi-bin/printenv/foo/bar/baz and got the same error (with "Is a directory" in the error_log). But after invoking just cgi/bin/printenv to wake it up, then going back and doing the /foo/bar/baz extra path worked fine. So it's not TWiki, and consequently not .htaccess. I am going to attach my httpd.conf file in the hopes that someone can find an Apache directive that should (or should not) be there. -- JonReid - 26 Jun 2001

• TWiki version: 01 Dec 2000
• Web server: Apache/1.3.19 (Darwin)
• Server OS: Mac OS X 10.0.3

-- JonReid - 20 Jun 2001

I have the same problem, on MacOSX 10.0.4 with both TWiki and /cgi-bin/printenv. I'm attempting to install TWiki as an intranet tool, and this is the only real sticking-point so far. Anybody got any hints? I'm not an Apache expert, but scrounging all the docs indicates that ScriptAlias should be enough to have it deal with the extended path properly.

One more thought: I wonder if this could be related to the documented problem with the HFS+ file system's case insensitivity. If so, it could explain why the same things shows up in Windows.

-- ToddJonker - 16 July 2001

We have asked for help on the following forums:

• http://www.macosx.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4356
• http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/3/lev3/22/pid/65/qid/101125
• http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=33&t=004654
• http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?50@17.DCxHauPDdqi^0@.ef6e839

As a temporary workaround, I added instructions to my main page along the lines of, "Before editing a page, click on [edit link with no path], [preview link with no path] and [save link with no path]."

-- JonReid - 16 Jul 2001

Answer

Don't have a solution, but this sounds similar to the extended path problem on TWikiOnWindows (support request TWikiWithWindowsNTIIS). It looks like the server considers WebHome in /twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome as the file until you "tell" the server that view is the file by pointing it to /twiki/bin/view/. Must be some configuration setting in Apache.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Jun 2001

I've discovered that the problem can be fixed by simply touching the scripts, e.g.,

$ cd TWiki/bin
$ touch view

Yes this is extremely odd. Looks like an Apache/Darwin bug. I hypothesize that Apache caches a list of files known to be scripts. The cache expires and is occasionally flushed (looks like about every half-hour). After a flush, if the file hasn't changed, then it assumes it's not a script. Touching the file forces Apache to re-examine the file, at which point it realizes that it is in fact a script.

-- ToddJonker - 17 Jul 2001

Thanks! Problem solved by adding the following crontab entry for user www:

*/20 * * * * (cd /Library/WebServer/TWiki/bin; touch attach delete edit oops preview rdiff register save search upload view viewfile)

-- JonReid - 18 Jul 2001

...Every 20 minutes was almost enough (no problems for a week). I changed it to every 15 minutes and had no problems for a month. Now I'm going to */10, every 10 minutes.

-- JonReid - 27 Aug 2001

These problems went away for me when I moved twiki to a UFS volume.

-- MatMarcus - 27 Aug 2001

Long-belated follow-up: This bug resolved itself on or about MacOsX 10.1; I removed the crontab job and things have been working smoothly for months. It was apparently a problem with the built-in Apache that was fixed by Apple.

-- ToddJonker - 24 Jun 2002