FC6 httpd Alias/symbolic link

[linuxmaillists at charter.net]

On Tuesday 06 March 2007, linuxmaillists at charter.net wrote:
> My DocumentRoot is here:
>
> #
> # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve
> your
> # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this
> directory, but
> # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to
> other locations.
> #
> DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"
>
>
> My Aliases look like this:
>
> #
> Alias /icons/ "/var/www/icons/"
> Alias /public_html "/home/user_name/public_html"
> #
>
> What is wrong with the second Alias line above?
>
> #
> # 05/23/05: This is now provided via a separate package
> called httpd-manual
> # which comes with an own manual alias
> Alias /manual "/var/www/manual"
>
> I want to be able to have one or two of my files
> in /var/www/html and the rest of them
> in /home/user_name/public_html
>
> Will this work with Alias or symbolic links?
>
> I have tried both and neither works for me.

I have read this several times and it just is not working 
for me.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/public_html.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_userdir.html#userdir
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_alias.html#alias

The text below came from the Apache manual on my local box

The Alias directive allows documents to be stored in the 
local filesystem other than under the DocumentRoot. URLs 
with a (%-decoded) path beginning with url-path will be 
mapped to local files beginning with directory-path.

What does the second sentence above mean?

 # cd /; ln -s / public_html
Accessing http://localhost/~root/

This would allow clients to walk through the entire 
filesystem.

Will some be kind enough to explain how this would work?  
This appears to be what I am trying to do with my user 
directory but it isn't working.