Well, this is FIXED now, but I thought I'd document the hassle
(while I'm still just chortling away at how much fun it's been)
===========================
Draft (not sent) post to "Tech Help!" at my hosting svc. (hub.org)
Dear Sirs,
I'm having success at getting two things to work (good), BUT I am not having success at getting them both to work at the same time (not so good).
These be SSI and CGI.
Gory annotation notes in my Apache configuration file...
/usr/local/etc/apache/virtual_host/www.reilly2001.info.conf
<VirtualHost>
# WR_ 20030828. As noted at TOP of httpd.conf file...
# Adding SSI to root (home) dir.
# RH7.3 Bible, p. 805 etc.
# (The intent is _not_ to have SSI on all sub-directories!) (Here's hoping!)
# This is so Movable Type 'recent.html' can be SSI'-ed into 'index.html'
## WR_ 20030829 SUMMARY
# O.K., I had trouble trying to get SSI to work, without
# it also taking down my CGI (!).
# That is, for SSI, I had 'Options Includes' for
# the home (web root) dir, and then (to avoid the
# dreaded ".shtml" way) I set 'XBitHack' to 'on'.
# O.K., SSI kicked in (on the single page I needed: /index.html)
# but my Movable Type CGI complained:
# "Forbidden, you don't have permission to access..."
# (All CGI, actually. /cgi-bin/wiki/wiki.cgi did the same)
# I Googled a bit to see about 'XBitHack' affecting CGI, "Forbidden" etc.
# Best I found were these, but they still didn't address my need.
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html.html#configuringyourservertoperm\
itssi
# http://www.apacheweek.com/features/ssi
# Then, the Apache FAQ has:
# http://www.surreyinstitute.org.uk/manual/misc/FAQ.html#forbidden
# which can only offer the general help of:
# "The Apache configuration has some access restrictions in place which forbid\ access to the files"
# Still, I realized it was prob. going to be this sort of .htaccess thing.
# So, I followed some ideas I'd seen in Apache books at the QuantumBooks store\ today...
# 1. Working only on my <Virtual_Host> file (rather than httpd.conf) was a goo\d idea... (I'd sorta figured that out...)
# 2. Understanding that yes, these <Directory> directives were for all sub-dir\s was important (!)
# 3. So putting a more exclusive <Files> directive, within the broader
# <Directory> directive seemed a good idea.
# 4. Finally, some mucking about with trying XBitHack on, then commented out, \then back on again, finally led me to getting it all to work.
# Hallelujah.
<Directory "/usr/local/www/reilly2001.info/www">
<Files "index.html">
Options Includes
</Files>
</Directory>
XBitHack on
</VirtualHost>