Can't serve first test pages?

I have a few domains here at Dreamhost, and have created test index.html files. But they won't serve.

When I hit the domain URL in my browser, I get a line in my error log:

[Sat Nov 11 06:47:41 2006] [crit] [client 146.115.40.138] (13)Permission denied: /home/nedbat/.htaccess pcfg_openfile: unable to check htaccess file, ensure it is readable

When I saw this message, I created an empty .htaccess in my home directory. Its permissions are -rw-r--r--, but I still get the same error in the error.log file.

I wouldn't have expected to need an .htaccess at that level, or I would have expected it to be created for me.

What needs to go into that file? Or is there some other problem?

In reply to:

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What needs to go into that file? Or is there some other problem?

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You do not normally need to create a .htaccess file in your home directory. The usual procedure is to create .htaccess files within your domain directories as required.

Have these domains worked previously? or is this a new account?

If the latter, it is possible something didn't quite go right during the account creation and your best option would be to contact support detailing the problem.

Mark

I don't know why you get that error message, but you don't need a .htaccess file.