title: Apache RewriteEngine On causes 403 error
body: <p>I have a Linux box running Centos 6.6 with Apaches 2.2.x
  For some unknown reason, turning on the rewrite engine causes a 403 error (this happens whether I add a rewrite rule or not).</p>
  
  <p>I have spent hours researching this and have made changes to my config in accordance with advice I have found in many places, but still got nowhere.</p>
  
  <p>Currently in my .htaccess I have this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;  
  Options +FollowSymLinks  
  RewriteEngine On  
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In the directives for the virtual host, I have this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>DocumentRoot /var/www/html/example.uk  
  &lt;Directory /var/www/html/example.uk&gt;  
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews  
  AllowOverride All
  Order allow,deny
  allow from all
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
  ServerName example.uk  
  ServerAlias www.example.uk
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>(This seems to work in a Debian box, but not for my Centos machine.)</p>
  
  <p>In my httpd.conf I have changed   </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>AllowOverride None  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>to  </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>AllowOverride All  </p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>my httpd.conf also contains
  <code>LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so</code></p>
  
  <p>Error log says:  </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden: /var/www/html/example.uk</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Now, I have previously added <strong>SymLinksIfOwnerMatch</strong> to the directives, but it didn't solve the problem.</p>
  
  <p>I followed <a href="http://www.ewhathow.com/2013/09/how-to-enable-mod_rewrite-on-apache/" rel="noreferrer">this</a> and all seemed to go as it should.</p>