Apache Configuration: huh?

[rob kent <k96rk01@xxxxxxxx>]

I'm running slackware 4.0, and I've run into the following weird Apache
behavior:

When trying to turn on directory indexing for user directories ONLY (which
is off by default in this distrib), I changed the httpd.conf file as
follows:

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>

UserDir public_html
<Directory /*/public_html>
    Options Indexes MultiViews SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
    AllowOverride None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>

which is to say, I left the / directory alone, and *tried* to put the
indexing functionality in the user directories by adding the "Indexes"
part of the "Options" line.  This did not work.  I fudged around with it
for over an hour, looking at the error log and everything, just to
discover that indexing in the user directories was "forbidden by rule".


I was getting frustrated, so on a whim, I changed the userdir config entry
as follows:

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
   .
   .
   .
</Directory>

and lo and behold, it worked (since all the user dirs are in /home
anyway).  so, i don't need a fix for any problem; my question is: WHY? 
Does this behavior make sense to anyone?  why can the * expand part of the
path but not all of it?  I'd like to know what i'm missing here, or
whether I should consider filing a bug report...

___________________________________________________________________________
   rob kent    |    k96rk01@kzoo.edu    |    http://cc.kzoo.edu/~k96rk01/