Cannot run index.html from /var/www/html - 403 forbidden - php

Question

I copied a few files from a local folder to the apache server folder /var/www/html, which includes an index.html as well.
I created a test file to check php version inside the folder and it gave the correct result of phpinfo().
But I cannot run localhost/index.html from the browser. I get the error-
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /index.html on this server.
Apache/2.4.7 (Ubuntu) Server at localhost Port 80
I checked the owner info by running ls -l inside /var/www/html, and this is the result-
drwx--S--- 4 root www-data 4096 Mar 26 22:28 ch01
-rw-r--r-- 1 root www-data 20 Mar 26 22:16 check.php
-rw------- 1 root www-data 36911 Mar 26 22:28 fang.jpg
-rw------- 1 root www-data 2060 Mar 26 22:28 index.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root www-data 19 Mar 26 22:28 pp.php
-rw------- 1 root www-data 1261 Mar 26 22:28 report.php
-rw------- 1 root www-data 77 Mar 26 22:28 style.css
I am trying to run the example code from head first into php and mysql.
I installed apache and php using this guide - https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-on-ubuntu

Answer 1

-rw------- 1 root www-data 2060 Mar 26 22:28 index.html
The file is
owned by root (who can read and write to it (rw-))
a member of the www-data group (which can't do anything with it (---))
can't be touched by the public (---)
Your webserver is almost certainly running as www-data, so you need to either:
Change the ownership of the file: chown www-data index.html or
Give the group permission to edit it: chmod 660 index.html
You have similar issues with other files.
NB: The current ownership and permissions suggests that you are using the root account to manage the files for the website. Don't do that. Create an account with more limited access for that purposes. Only run as root when you really have to.

Answer 2

the default location is
/var/www/
and not '
/var/www/html/
you can access the index.html at
http://localhost:80/html/index.html