The Web Sharing feature is a useful way of testing out simple sites and applications using the built-in Apache server in OS X. Although I don’t recommend using it for complex projects (I recommend Vagrant for those cases), it’s still a useful thing to have.

After upgrading from from Mavericks to Yosemite, the built in web server no longer was configured to serve content from /Users/(username)/Sites. Here are some brief instructions on getting it back up and running:

First, it’s worth noting that Yosemite is now using Apache 2.4 rather than 2.2, which was included in Mavericks. This has an effect on some authorisation settings, which you will see below.

As an administrator, load the following file in an editor:

/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf


Uncomment the following line:

Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf


Edit the following file

/etc/apache2/httpd.conf


Uncomment the following lines:

LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so
LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf


Edit your user configuration under /etc/apache2/users/username.conf

Change any instances of:

Order allow,deny
Allow from all


to

Require all granted


(this was one of the major changes between Apache 2.2 and 2.4 — see more details here http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/upgrading.html)

Re-instate your previous PHP configuration:

sudo mv /etc/php.ini-5.2-previous /etc/php.ini


If you want to have Apache startup automatically when you Mac boots, enter the following:


sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist


Finally, start Apache:

sudo apachectl start


If all goes well, you’ll see a message similar to this logged in /var/logs/apache2/error_log:

[Mon Oct 20 07:26:42.063040 2014] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 4412] AH00163: Apache/2.4.9 (Unix) PHP/5.5.14 configured -- resuming normal operations

You should also now be able to access your shared files in your browser via http://localhost/~username/

Any questions? Please use the comments section below!

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