Host "FollowSymlinks" and "Option' directives

Worker Joined: Aug 16, 2003 Posts: 107 Location: USA

only way to get site back online was delete htaccess file

Tyler [7:19:08 PM]: Thank you for contacting our Live Chat! Please be patient as I am often on several different chats at once. Thank you!
kevin [7:19:08 PM]: all sites down this error
an error occurred while processing this directive
Tyler [7:19:19 PM]: Where do you get this, on all sites?
kevin [7:19:50 PM]: i second i get them
[7:20:07 PM]: http://www.*******/index.php
[7:20:18 PM]: http://www.*******/index.php
Tyler [7:20:26 PM]: Ok, have you checked your error logs?
kevin [7:20:40 PM]: running php there
Tyler [7:21:09 PM]: Ok, what do your .htaccess files say for those sites?
kevin [7:23:03 PM]: there aot in file it been running for 1 year with it
Tyler [7:23:15 PM]: Ok.
[7:23:27 PM]: Do you have options follow symlinks in those .htaccess files?
kevin [7:24:23 PM]: not sure
Tyler [7:24:31 PM]: Ok
[7:24:37 PM]: The 500 Crashes are caused by directives within the .htaccess files referencing the "FollowSymlinks" Options. For security reasons, we will no longer support this feature. All websites with this option enabled will have to show this Internal Error until the offending "Options" directive is removed.
[7:24:48 PM]: Those errors may be caused by the same thing.
kevin [7:26:32 PM]: so what needs to be done
Tyler [7:26:57 PM]: I would suggest going through your .htaccess files and checking those to see if that is an issue.
kevin [7:27:23 PM]: can you restart the sites?
Tyler [7:28:21 PM]: It doesn't take a restart, it should see it and then read it.
kevin [7:29:16 PM]: so how do i get sites up and running?
Tyler [7:29:51 PM]: I'm not sure, You may want to contact the scripting department for more help on that here via ticket request at http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com
kevin [7:30:53 PM]: cant restart mysql or error somewhere else
Tyler [7:32:01 PM]: No, they don't need to be restarted.
kevin [7:34:04 PM]: if httaccess file is deleted would that help
Tyler [7:34:47 PM]: that may help
[7:34:52 PM]: I would suggest renaming it

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:16 pm

I just dealt with the same idiots. An email about a change like this would have been nice instead of stumbling on to all my sites down and have no idea why.

Open .Htaccess and comment out
Options +FollowSymLinks
Options +Includes
Options -Indexes

Code:




# 'Options +FollowSymLinks' is required for use of mod_rewrite.


# Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.


#Options +FollowSymLinks





# 'Options +Includes' is required for use of Server Side Includes (SSI), such as custom error pages (like 403.shtml).


# Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.


#Options +Includes





# 'Options -Indexes' is used for controlling directory listings if there is not an index file in a directory (and said directory is readable by the web server).


# A directory index will be automatically generated and this can prove to be a dangerous security issue.


# To disable this feature, use: 'Options -Indexes'


# To enable this feature (not advised), use: 'Options +Indexes'


# Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.


#Options -Indexes

Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 9:34 pm

Thank you for code fix doing it now Wave

registered · Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 6:35 am

I cannot recall the purpose on each of these (except -Indexes), but you may want to test whether a lower level .htaccess file continues to work the way it was originally intended.

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:47 am

Not sure what you mean Montego.

registered · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:16 am

I think he meant "url redirection"

Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:59 am

No, not exactly. Again, not sure it is relevant, but...

.htaccess directives are inherited on down the directory structure. For example, if you have a "deny from all" in modules/HTML_Newsletter directory, than all images being loaded from modules/HTML_Newsletter/images would fail to be served up. I could override this behavior by placing another .htaccess in the "images" directory which then did the needed "allow".

I just can't remember if one of these directives being commented out affects either the inheritance or override or this is just a red herring on my part. Smile