The webwork.apache-config file was last modified in 2007, that is, at the time I installed WebWork on our server. Same thing for the httpd.conf file. Is there something in that initial setting that would deny access to a 2007 course?
It's probably not the
webwork.apache-config file (unless you have done some non-standard file-name matching). If the only change from the distribution is editing the
$webwork_dir variable, then that file is probably OK.
I could not find any .htaccess files.
DId you use commands that would show the "hidden" files? Filenames starting with dots usually are not shown in directory listing, so
.htaccess files won't show up unless you take special care when looking for them. For example
ls -a
would list them in the directory you are cd'ed to, and
find . -name .htaccess
would find them in the current directory and any of its sub directories. Remember that you have to look in EVERY directory that is above the file you are having trouble accessing. In your case, that would probably be
/opt/webwork2/courses/Calculus_I_NYB_MC/tmp/gif
/opt/webwork2/courses/Calculus_I_NYB_MC/tmp
/opt/webwork2/courses/Calculus_I_NYB_MC
/opt/webwork2/courses
/opt/webwork2
and
/opt
(but since it works for Calculus_II, the last three are unlikely to be it).
You should also check the file permissions on ALL these directories, not just the bottom gif. I'm wondering if the tmp or Calculus_I_NYB_MC directories doesn't allow the server to read the directory.
There is no difference between the course config file of Calculus_I and the course config file of Calculus_II.
It is unlikely to have to do with the
course.conf files.
I searched the config files under /webwork2 and /apache2 for the word "Calculus". I did not find any reference to either Calculus courses.
It is unlikely to be something that refers to Calculus directly. There are pattern-matching commands in the httpd configuration files that are the ones that re-route the requests for the static files. The http error log should list the re-routed addresses, so you can see if the files being requested are being sent to the correct file or not.
did not find the httpd error file to be valuable (maybe I was looking at the wrong file). It said "file not found".
Well, that would be the result of a 404 error, not a 403 error, so you may not be looking at the right line of the file (or not the right file, as you suggest). You should see something like
client denied by server configuration: /opt/webwork2/courses/Calculus_I_NYB_MC/tmp/gif/Und...
or
Permission denied: access to /opt/webwork2/courses/Calcu...rob6-2-96187.gif failed because
search permissions are missing on a component of the path
or something along those lines.
The actual error message could tell you something about the cause of the error. The first message above, for example, says that an apache configuration file is what is causing the denial (either the main httpd.conf file or a .htaccess file, or perhaps the webwork.apache-config file). The second error probably is due to a permission problem on one of the directories.
See if any of that helps.
Davide