UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have problem giving user access to his public_html directory.
While when I am logged as root I can access my files by going to

Code:

www.myserver.com/file.html

where file.html is actually on this path...

Code:

var/www/file.html

But when user tries to access his file.html on this path....

Code:

~user/file.html

it gets 404 error.

How would i fix this problem.Do I have to give some permission to user. Can you point me to some tutorial about this.

I havent done anything beside created user issuing this command

Code:

useradd username

Thank you

On what OS are you?
I would not create users on a box just so they can access by http...

What http server are you using?
For instance, apache has htpasswd utility to create accounts to access http server ( and so there is no need to have unix accounts created...)

I am running debian flavour of linux and apache http server
I just want to practice on how to acount for user and want that
user to be able to create web page is he wants to.

Yes...
And what is wrong giving access to HTTP users to access only using HTTP?
I think there is some misunderstanding...
That user under unix has he the good permissions to write/execute in your htdocs tree?
If he modifies the structure, has he the permission to stop/restart your apache server?

Problem I am having is this.....
When user tries to access his page it gets 404 error.
I think there is problem with permissions for particular user

That will be difficult to answer since you havent yet answered to the previous post...
a 404 means not found...
Look at my previous post and try to answer!

Then you do understand that a unix login ends in a unis $HOME directory which has nothing to do with HTTP stuff...

Hi. Thanks for replying. I have installed Debian just to play and learn about linux. My goal is to lean how to create users on linux and how to admin them. I didnt do anything more about users but added few users to the system by using command "useradd" (this i did as "root").So my users now can accees linux remotly using ssh or they can ftp into their file system. For example when users wants to create html document he will ftp into the server and it will be presented with his directory which is /home/username...Now at this point since user wants to create some .html file he will create "public_html" directory and add html file he created locally on his machine. Now at this point user wants to view this file on the web by going to this url ....http://www.servername.com/~username/file.html.....but he gets 404 error.
What can I as admin do to make it possible for user to be able to see file.html on the web?