How To Use the .htaccess File

I followed the tutorial but when i upload via filezilla (Alreay installed proftpd), it says 550 .htaccess: Permission denied

Are you upload to other files to that directory as that user or is only .htaccess prevented from being uploaded?

I am uploading to var/www/ directory via filezilla, and filezilla wont allow me to upload .htaccess

Can you upload any other files that aren’t .htaccess, such as “test-file”?

403 forbidden site after doing this ,

i have to change AllowOverride All

to

AllowOverride None

and its working again

Hi everybody, I have same and fixed this problems.

1. Install Mod_rewite sudo a2enmod rewrite
2. Change AllowOverride from None to All sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default … <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> …
3. Restart apache sudo service apache2 restart
4. Create .htaccess file by command sudo nano .htaccess pate your htaccess code -> Save and Exit My site working. I hope this is helpful :)

admin, what do you mean by, “Paste your htaccess code”? paste what, where? thanks.

@artisannm: Your htaccess code is the code you came up with after following this article.

Hmm, nothing is helping. I am trying to install a community forum program called Elgg. its located in the top directory. I’m using filezilla for my ftp. The installer has a precheck: “PHP Your server’s PHP satisfies all of Elgg’s requirements.”

"Web server We think your server is running the Apache web server.

The rewrite test failed and the most likely cause is that AllowOverride is not set to All for Elgg’s directory. This prevents Apache from processing the .htaccess file which contains the rewrite rules.

A less likely cause is Apache is configured with an alias for your Elgg directory and you need to set the RewriteBase in your .htaccess. There are further instructions in the .htaccess file in your Elgg directory."

I can’t edit the .htaccess permissions inside the Elgg directory. I have changed Allow Override to All. I followed Admin’s steps to no avail. I didn’t follow the steps for creating custom urls etc, as that wasn’t applicable.

I did check inside the Elgg folder and copied the .htaccess-dist file over to the .htaccess and still can’t change permissions on .htaccess but can change permissions on .htaccess-dist

I also tried uncommenting Rewrite Base in .htaccess I have restarted apache2 as guided. I can’t get past this .htaccess file in order to continue setting up the Elgg install. I’m on ubuntu 12.04, interfacing through Terminal on an imac. I have mysql up and running along with apache2. I have a phpbb3 forum up and running as well, from the top directory along with a website.

thanks for your help in advance…

@artisannm: Please pastebin apache’s config files (and .htaccess).

Try enabling the rewrite module: <pre>sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo service apache2 restart</pre>

I had the same problem. Thanks to post my admin I got it working. His comment should be included in the main article.

“1. Install Mod_rewite sudo a2enmod rewrite”

Admin Thank you!

Hi, I’ve got some problem with htaccess in a virtualhost on Ubuntu 12.04. First of all in my “/etc/apache2/sites-available/” folder there is 000-default.conf and not default.conf but this was not the problem. Sudo a2enmod rewrite return Module rewrite already enabled and in the site.conf where I need to use htaccess, AllowOverride was set correctly to All but it didn’t work because in my /ect/apache2/apache2.conf I had AllowOverride None.

Hope this help

Well, as said on tutorial, all htaccess do apache config can do as well too. is there any tutorial teaching this?

Thanks a lot!!!

AuthName Please Enter Password Should be: AuthName “Please Enter Password”

As per the Apache documentation: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_authn_core.html#authname

guys… I think this is for ubuntu OS. Pls guide me to set up on Centos

@team: Everything should be the same on CentOS except for the paths – you have to edit <code>/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf</code> instead.

you wrote about activating .htaccess, what about DEACTIVATE it? I don’t want to use it any longer (it came enable by default, and I want to disable it). How can i do this? Thanx.

Once I write:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

The file is empty! Is there another code for me to see the info? Thanx.

@pauli

On more recent versions of Ubuntu the default conf file is named:

/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf

To disable the .htaccess file, find the part of your apache conf that looks like:

 <Directory /var/www/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride All
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
 </Directory>

And change “AllowOverride All” to “AllowOverride None”

I try the auth code like this

AuthType Basic AuthName Admin area only AuthGroupFile /dev/null AuthUserFile /var/www/knigoobzor.ru/public_html/admin/.htpasswd Require valid-user

But when I reach knigoobzor.ru/admin in browser I get "Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request…"

What’s wrong? The paths seem to be correct.

As of now “/etc/apache2/sites-available/default” is not working. The correct one would be “sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf”

good Tutorials man giving me ideas about my project But guys i have the problem with my apache users they can’t read freeradius log file on centos 6.5 , do i have to give them permission through htaccess file ? if how i tried and not fix anyone please help me out

Logged in just to say THANKS to @matteo.poile your solution did the trick!

Hello,

Why is the sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/default load blank page?, i cannot find any line of like : <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory>

Thank you

If you can’t find it in /etc/apache2/sites-available/default it’s in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Change it to below:

<Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory>

Make sure to turn mod rewrite on: a2enmod rewrite and restart: service apache2 restart

If you also rewriting links: http://alexcican.com/post/how-to-remove-php-html-htm-extensions-with-htaccess/

Hello, I have multiple websites in my server, does I have to edit the file and add the path for each one? Something like this:

 <Directory /var/www/miwebsite.com/publichtml>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride All
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
 </Directory>

I made it as u say, but I got an error in my main website, the others are working. Says 500 error.

Thanks

Broken link: http://cs.its.uiowa.edu/wts/htpasswd.shtml

Thanks for sharing this informative article. I would like to add few more things that we can do using htaccess file -

1. Protect wp-config.php with .htaccess file
2. Restrict Spam visitors and Block them by using IP Address
3. Restricting other users to access Admin area

Source: http://catchupdates.com/what-is-htaccess-file/

Hi,

I am getting the following error, please help. It appears on /wp-admin

…

’ . __( ‘Welcome to your WordPress Dashboard! This is the screen you will see when you log in to your site, and gives you access to all the site management features of WordPress. You can get help for any screen by clicking the Help tab in the upper corner.’ ) . ’

'; // Not using chaining here, so as to be parseable by PHP4. $screen = get_current_screen(); $screen->add_help_tab( array( ‘id’ => ‘overview’, ‘title’ => __( ‘Overview’ ), ‘content’ => $help, ) ); // Help tabs $help = ’

’ . __( ‘The left-hand navigation menu provides links to all of the WordPress administration screens, with submenu items displayed on hover. You can minimize this menu to a narrow icon strip by clicking on the Collapse Menu arrow at the bottom.’ ) . ’ '; $help .= ’

’ . __( ‘Links in the Toolbar at the top of the screen connect your dashboard and the front end of your site, and provide access to your profile and helpful WordPress information.’ ) . ’ '; $screen->add_help_tab( array( ‘id’ => ‘help-navigation’, ‘title’ => __( ‘Navigation’ ), ‘content’ => $help, ) ); $help = ’

’ . __( ‘You can use the following controls to arrange your Dashboard screen to suit your workflow. This is true on most other administration screens as well.’ ) . ’ '; $help .= ’

…

Thanks for this great tutorial. I encountered a few issues when trying to get this to work on Debian 8.2 and Apache 2.4.10: there was no default.conf and editing the 000-default.conf did not work.

I had to edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, and ensured the following part looked like this:

<Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory>

(AllowOverride All is the entry that made .htaccess work)

Not exactly sure why this was my case but my <Directory /var/www/> directive in my apache2.conf file had to look like this before URL rewrite would function properly:

<Directory /var/www/>
	Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
	AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
	Require all granted
    allow from all
</Directory>

Where most people were able to get it to work without the “Require all granted” line, mine would not. Does enabling this line cause any security vulnerabilities I should be aware of?

I usually get these errors on WordPress but I just built a site from scratch and I got this error. Thanks for sharing this post.

This does not apply to Apache 2.4 Part 1) The filename is now called 000-default.conf that you must edit. see: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/upgrading.html to achieve the above results you will use:
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost DocumentRoot /var/www <Directory /var/www/> Options Indexes FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Require all granted </Directory>

Part 2) .htpasswd see: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/programs/htpasswd.html There are some changes there too.

73s Have a good day

Hello, I followed the guide for 2. Authentication and tested the combination for “jsmith”. But it didn’t work. The “site” I’ve tested is a little CGI (Perl) project under a local Webserver installation on a Windows system with XAMPP. But the webserver should work as well. If I ommit the .htaccess all works fine. The .htpasswd file is placed well and is found by the webserver. Thanks in advance, regards, Thomas

As an added note when modifying the apache host configuration, AllowOverride All may have to be set in multiple config files. (e.g. 000-default.conf, default-ssl.conf, etc.)

The port may differ depending on if using SSL/TLS or not. (e.g. <VirtualHost _default_:443>, <VirtualHost *:80>, etc.)

Thanks for the helpful article but for my RHEL 7 + Apache 2.4, htaccesstools’ generator worked while the one linked in the article was broken and ended up in the server accepting all strings as valid.

Under Apache 2.4 (which is installed by default under Debian 10 and probably other operating systems at this point), the advice above is not quite right.

My particular application was to add password control to some directories. I had to edit the config in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf to contain

 <Directory /var/www/>
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride All
                Require all granted
 </Directory>

And then add .htaccess files to the necessary directories, each containing

AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
AuthName "Please Enter Password"
AuthType Basic
Require valid-user

.htpasswd was created with htpasswd /etc/apache2/.htpasswd

and then of course reboot Apache with sudo service apache2 restart

As most have seen and commented, in order to make .htaccess file work, you’ll need to add the following to the apache2.conf:

<Directory /var/www/>
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Explanation of Each Directive

1. <Directory /var/www/> … </Directory>:

   • This block specifies that the enclosed directives apply to the /var/www/ directory and all its subdirectories.

2. Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews:

   • This directive controls which server features are available in the specified directory.

   • Indexes:

     • If a URL that maps to a directory does not have an index file (like index.html), Apache will generate and display a directory listing. This can be a security risk if not used carefully, as it exposes the directory contents to the web.

   • FollowSymLinks:

     • Allows the server to follow symbolic links in the directory. This means if there is a symlink within /var/www/ pointing to another file or directory, Apache will follow it.

   • MultiViews:

     • Enables content negotiation, allowing the server to provide different versions of a file based on the client’s capabilities or preferences. For example, it can serve a French version of a page if the user’s browser prefers French.

3. AllowOverride All:

   • This directive controls which directives declared in .htaccess files (if present in the directory) can override server configuration.
   • All means that all types of directives are allowed to be overridden by .htaccess files. This can be useful for allowing directory-specific configurations but can also pose a security risk if not managed properly, as it allows users to modify server behavior within their directories.

4. Require all granted:

   • This directive controls access to the directory.
   • Require all granted means that all requests are allowed access. This effectively means anyone can access the content served from /var/www/. This setting is essential for publicly accessible web content but should be used cautiously, especially for directories containing sensitive data.

Summary

By adding this block to your apache2.conf, you’re configuring Apache to:

• Allow directory listings if no index file is found.
• Follow symbolic links within /var/www/.
• Use content negotiation to serve different versions of content.
• Permit .htaccess files in /var/www/ to override server configurations.
• Allow all users to access the content in /var/www/ without restrictions.