Unable to display omages on localhost web server

Question

Level 1

12 points

Unable to display omages on localhost web server

I set up a local web server (Apache2) on a Mac Studio running Sequoia as per instructions from etresoft's 7/23/25 post (thanks for the help).

I can get text headings, paragraphs, and a simple Javascript to work, however; I cannot get it to display an image.

The following in the page's html code displays the alternate text and an outline but no image.

<img src="file:///Users/TravisT/Desktop/YesWhatSm.png" alt="Avatar 6" width="830" height="865">

I think I have made a stupid error but I cannot find it.

Thank you in advance

Mac Studio (2022)

Posted on Aug 30, 2025 02:57 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

MrHoffman

Community+ 2025

Level 10

141,277 points

Aug 30, 2025 03:02 PM in response to Oldfart64

When troubleshooting errors, look in the Apache error and access logs.

I suspect you’ll find an HTTP 403 Forbidden error logged.

Move the file into a directory accessible to the web server.

While you can open up access on the file, you really don’t want a web server poking around in random files. And it usually isn’t the best idea to enable wider access for a web server.

Reply

Answer 2

etresoft

Level 9

55,304 points

Aug 30, 2025 04:38 PM in response to Oldfart64

The web server runs under its own user with its own permissions. It can't directly access a file:// URL. It's better to keep the images in the same folder as your web pages. Then just reference them with a relative path. In most cases, it will just something like:

<img src="images/YesWhatSm.png" alt="Avatar 6" width="830" height="865">

Reply

Answer 3

Aug 30, 2025 03:10 PM in response to Oldfart64

Move the image to your web server's directory.

Reply