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HTTP Status Codes

After deploying your application, when you go to the application’s URL, you may receive an HTTP status code identifying an issue with the server or client. This article explains how to resolve these status codes.

403 error

After deploying your application, if there’s an issue with file permissions or the workspace path, you may see the following or a similar error when you try to go to your application’s URL:

403 Forbidden
You don’t have permission to access this resource.

This error is usually caused by one of the following:

  • Incorrect file permissions.
  • Incorrect configuration within an .htaccess file.
  • Configuration error in the workspace path in Apache configuration.

If you cannot identify the issue, check the following, and if the issue persists, contact our Support team.

File permissions

File permissions control who can:

  • Read: See the contents of a file or view files in a directory.
  • Write: Modify a file, or add or delete files in a directory.
  • Execute: Run a file and/or execute it as a script, or access a directory and perform functions and commands.

Each file and directory has its own set of file permissions, shown as a 3-digit number. Each number indicates the permission level for each category (read, write, and execute) shown above. We generally recommend the following permissions, but there could be cases where these need to be different for your application (e.g. some applications may need permissions on files to be set to 755 or 750):

  • Files: 644 or 640
  • Directories: 755 or 750

Make sure file permissions are set for your application. We recommend checking the documentation for your application, language, or framework if you are unsure.

.htaccess file

If your application’s code includes an .htaccess file, verify that any configuration directives in it are correct. For example, a misconfigured Rewrite or FilesMatch directive can cause a 403 error.

Workspace path

If your application uses a buildpack and an Apache web server, an incorrect workspace path in your Apache configuration can cause a 403 error. The application logs may show an error similar to the following:

python: can't open file '/workspace/server.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

This error shows that the command the buildpack is trying to run doesn’t exist. Update your Apache configuration to use /workspace/web/ (instead of  /workspace/ or similar) to resolve this issue.

503 error

After a successful application deployment, if there’s an issue within the application’s code or configuration, you may see the following error when you try to go to your application’s URL:

503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

If you cannot identify the issue, check the following.

Workspace path

If your application uses a buildpack and an Apache web server, an incorrect workspace path in your Apache configuration can cause a 503 error. The application logs may show an error similar to the following:

python: can't open file '/workspace/server.py': [Errno 2] No such file or directory

This error shows that the command the buildpack is trying to run doesn’t exist. Update your Apache configuration to use /workspace/web/ (instead of  /workspace/ or similar) to resolve this issue.

Note: This issue may also present as an oom-killed error in the runtime logs (but it isn’t the only possible cause of an oom-killed error).

If the error persists after checking and fixing any configuration issues, follow our Failed Deployment troubleshooting guide. If the error remains beyond those steps, contact our Support team.

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