Apache client denied by server configuration after mac OS X upgrade to Yosemite

In your user .conf (douglas.conf) replace:

Order allow,deny
Allow from all

With:

Require all granted

The difference is how apache 2.4 handles permissions

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/upgrading.html

I had the same issue and I fixed it by doing so:

1. Load the userdir module: edit httpd.conf (/etc/apache2/httpd.conf on macbook) and uncomment these lines:

   LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so
   

   and

   Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf
   

2. Edit httpd-userdir.conf (at /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf), find and uncomment the following line:

   Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf
   

3. Edit your config file at users/*.conf, add Require local and + (or -) character before all options in the options line:

   <Directory "/Users/user/Sites/">
       Options +Indexes +MultiViews +FollowSymLinks +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch +ExecCGI
       AllowOverride All
       Require local
       Order allow,deny
       Allow from all
   </Directory>
   

I experienced the same thing but on Mavericks after applying the security update from a couple days ago. Mavericks is still using Apache 2.2 so it wasn't the config issue chrisMc mentioned, though it looks like he's right and you'll need to change that as well.

In my case, I first resolved the core problem by commenting out the Homebrew PHP 5.4 module line I had previously added. In the httpd.conf:

#LoadModule php5_module /usr/local/opt/php54/libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

And instead opting for the default PHP module which I had commented out before:

LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

That fixed it, but as for why the Homebrew version broke, I think maybe a system library it was compiled against was updated in the security update. When I ran php -v I got a warning about an icu4c library that wasn't loaded.

So, I just recompiled PHP and it worked again. In my case, I just did

brew uninstall php54
brew install php54

Then the Homebrew module could be enabled again.

In httpd.conf uncomment:

LoadModule authz_core_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_core.so 
LoadModule authz_host_module libexec/apache2/mod_authz_host.so 
LoadModule userdir_module libexec/apache2/mod_userdir.so 
Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

And in /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-userdir.conf uncomment:

Include /private/etc/apache2/users/*.conf

Then restart Apache.