Htaccess Problem #1: No Dot Before the Filename
The .htaccess file’s filename must start with a dot, like so:.htaccessFiles and directory names starting with a dot are treated as hidden files by Unix, Linux & Mac. The htaccess file is hidden so it doesn’t distract from normal web content like HTML files. See hidden files for more information.
Without the dot at the beginning, Apache will ignore the htaccess file.
Htaccess Problem #2: Filename Not All Lowercase
If an htaccess file’s name contains uppercase letters, it generally will not work on Linux or Unix. This is because filenames on Linux and Unix are usually case sensitive. If an htaccess file has any uppercase letters, e.g..HTACCESS
or .HTaccess
, Apache won’t find the htaccess file. The htaccess is ignored.An htaccess file containing uppercase letters generall will work on Windows and Mac. This is because filenames on these platforms are generally case insensitive. I’d recommend sticking with lowercase, so your websites are portable to Linux servers. The use of uppercase letters could also circumvent Apache directives designed to prevent the contents of .htaccess files read from the web.
Htaccess Problem #3: Filename Misspelt
Common misspellings of the htaccess file’s name arehtacess
and htacess
. Check the filename has two c’s and two s’s.Htaccess Problem #4: Htaccess Disabled by AllowOverride Setting
On some servers, Apache is configured to ignore some or all directives in .htaccess files. This is for security reasons. TheAllowOverride
directive controls which features will be allowed in .htaccess files. For example AllowOverride
None
can turn off htaccess files for a folder and its subfolders.Check your Apache configuration file for which
AllowOverride
directive is applied to the directory containing your problem htaccess file.If you’re not sure which configuration file to look in, start with the main Apache configuration file
httpd.conf
or apache2.conf
. If your website is configured in a file included by httpd.conf (e.g. a virtual hosts configuration file), you will need to look in that file. See Location of httpd.conf on CentOS, Ubuntu, Mac and others to locate your httpd.conf.To enable using a .htaccess file, change
AllowOverride
None
to AllowOverride
All
.For example, for a CentOS 5.3 server, I needed to change the
AllowOverride
setting in the file /etc/httpd/conf.d/virtualhosts.conf
.httpd.conf
before:Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride None
httpd.conf
after:Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride AllBe aware that enabling htaccess files has security implications, as htaccess files override your Apache configuration. For example, if your site provides uploads, a hacker could potentially upload a .htaccess file to your server and use it to gain access to your server. There are options to
AllowOverride
that restrict the directives that will be used from a .htaccess file. See the documentation for AllowOverride.Htaccess Problem #5: Incorrect Syntax
If Apache can’t understand a line in your htaccess, it will usually cause an error from Apache. The error may show in the web browser when a webpage causes Apache to read the .htaccess file.To demonstrate this, I added a bad line to the Smart Web Developer .htaccess file. See if you can spot the bad line.
# BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress utter rubbish config line hereThis causes the following error in the browser:
Internal Server ErrorThe reason for the error is logged to an Apache error log:
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, root@localhost and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
[Sat Feb 26 18:21:09 2011] [alert] [client 127.0.0.1] /Users/taz/Sites/smartwebdeveloper/.htaccess: Invalid command 'utter', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration, referer: http://smartwebdeveloper.com/Another option to debug Apache syntax is to put the the .htaccess contents into the main Apache configuration file under a <Directory> directive. Apache has an option to parse and check its configuration files. To run an Apache syntax check, run:
httpd
-S
.Htaccess Problem #6: Htaccess Settings Overridden by Another Htaccess File
Multiple .htaccess files may be read and applied if a web request is made to a file in nested directories. Typically all .htaccess files in the path between the website’s root directory and the requested file’s directory will be read and applied in order. As a result, an htaccess file in a more deeply nested directory can override the settings made by an htaccess in a higher directory.Is there another .htaccess file in another directory in the path to your webpage? That htaccess file the may be overriding the settings in the htaccess you’re looking at.
On Mac, Linux & Unix, you can find all .htaccess files on your website in the terminal:
find /path/to/website/root -iname .htaccess -print
http://smartwebdeveloper.com/apache/htaccess-problems
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