THE Ultimate Htaccess
.htaccess is a very ancient configuration file for web servers, and is one of the most powerful configuration files most webmasters will ever come across. This htaccess guide shows off the very best of the best htaccess tricks and code snippets from hackers and server administrators.
You've come to the right place if you are looking to acquire mad skills for using .htaccess files!
Actual Htaccess Files from My Server
#### No https except to wp-admin -
# If the request is empty ( implies fopen or normal file access by a php script )
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^$ [OR]
# OR if the request if for wp-admin or wp-login.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(wp-admin|wp-login.php).*$ [NC,OR]
# OR if the Referer is https
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https://www.askapache.com/.*$ [NC]
# THEN skip the following rule, basically all this does is force https or badhost to be redirected
# BUT because of the above 3 rewritecond's, this won't break poorly written admin scripts
RewriteRule .* - [S=1]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} =on [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.askapache.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule .* https://www.askapache.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9} /(wp-admin/.*|wp-login.php.*) HTTP/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule .* https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
Setting charset in htaccess
Learning about charset's and file types maybe pretty boring, but using .htaccess it can be fun! Here's a quicklist htaccess cheatsheet for adding the correct Charset to a web document.
Ultimate Htaccess Part II
Here is even more information from the Ultimate Htaccess Part I. For now this is very rough and you will want to come back later to read it.
Skeleton .htaccess file for Powweb Hosting
If you have a Powweb Webhosting account, you will appreciate this simple skeleton .htaccess file for use on their systems.
Htaccess File Sample
Comprehensive .htaccess example file with advanced examples in 1 htaccess sample skeleton .htaccess file with the very best apache htaccess examples... Updated frequently based on detailed info from the Apache htaccess tutorial.
htaccess Tricks for Webmasters
Some of my favorite htaccess examples from some of my favorite .htaccess tutorials. These cut-and-paste ready htaccess code snippets are very useful for website and server administrators.
Apache Authentication in htaccess
How to password-protect, Allow or Deny a visitor based on a condition. If you are having trouble getting htaccess-based password protection to work see: Troubleshooting htaccess Authentication: Getting it to work
FastCGI on DreamHost
Using FastCGI on DreamHost and .htaccess
3 Ways to Serve PDF Files using Htaccess Cookies, Headers, Rewrites
FYI, using the Mod_Rewrite Variables Cheatsheet makes this example, and all advanced .htaccess code easier to understand. This demo lets you set a cookie with 1 of 3 values, then you just request the pdf file with a normal link click and get 1 of 3 different responses. This is accomplished with a nice bit of .htaccess code.
Set PDF Viewing Mode - Make a selection, then click the view pdf button.
Inline Download Save As View PDF using selected mode »
SSI in Htaccess for ErrorDocuments, DirectoryIndexing, SEO

3-Part article covering practical implementation of 3 advanced .htaccess features. Discover an easy way to boost your SEO the AskApache way (focus on visitors), a tip you might keep and use for life. Get some cool security tricks to use against spammers, crackers, and other nefarious sorts. Take your site's error handling to the next level, enhanced ErrorDocuments that go beyond 404's.
Notes from Apache HTTPD Source Code
thought I'd take a break from coding and post about how open-source is such a great tool for finding the best answers to the toughest questions,
/** is the status code informational */ #define ap_is_HTTP_INFO(x) (((x) >= 100)&&((x) < 200)) /** is the status code OK ?*/ #define ap_is_HTTP_SUCCESS(x) (((x) >= 200)&&((x) < 300)) /** is the status code a redirect */ #define ap_is_HTTP_REDIRECT(x) (((x) >= 300)&&((x) < 400)) /** is the status code a error (client or server) */ #define ap_is_HTTP_ERROR(x) (((x) >= 400)&&((x) < 600)) /** is the status code a client error */ #define ap_is_HTTP_CLIENT_ERROR(x) (((x) >= 400)&&((x) < 500)) /** is the status code a server error */ #define ap_is_HTTP_SERVER_ERROR(x) (((x) >= 500)&&((x) < 600)) /** is the status code a (potentially) valid response code? */ #define ap_is_HTTP_VALID_RESPONSE(x) (((x) >= 100)&&((x) < 600))
Manipulating HTTP Headers with htaccess
Apache .htaccess and httpd.conf have the power to send and manipulate HTTP Header Requests like sending P3P privacy headers, Content-Type: UTF-8, Content-Language, etc. The power is immense and you can do some really cool stuff with HTTP Headers!
Preloading .flv and .mp3 files with Flash
If you want to pre-load .flv / .mp3 files into a visitors browser cache using flash, here's the actionscript I use to do it, and some ideas behind a good javascript implementation using swfobject or ufo.
Preload flash .flv files into browser cache
How I was able to preload many flash flv and swf files on one of my clients sites that has a lot of online video and relatively small traffic. Their site visitors would usually watch 3-10 videos per visit and so to make the videos load almost instantly on every page I came up with a way to preload the top 10 .flv files and the swf flv player files as soon as the visitor successfully started watching the 1st video. Of course I also setup .htaccess caching on the server so that once they downloaded the files into their cache they would never request them from the server again. I was having fun with this so its pretty funky and uses some really cool combinations of javascript, swf preloader from xml, css classes to help automate it all..
Custom PHP.ini tips and tricks
- When php run as Apache Module (mod_php)
- When php run as CGI
- When cgi?d php is run with wrapper (for FastCGI)
Links to htaccess tutorials and articles
Links to htaccess tutorials and howtos in the htaccess forum
Apache Compression, Vary, mod_deflate
Make phpBB SEO friendly with htaccess
After I optimized the caching for my non-dynamic pages using apache modules mod_headers and mod_expires, I began to learn about phpbb seo..
.htaccess – Wikipedia
htaccess directives available on Powweb
List of the directives available to Powweb users for use in htaccess filesAn AskApache Plugin Upgrade to Rule them All
So my blog as been rather quiet for almost a year now, and very few updates if any have been released for my Password Protection PLugin, my Google 404 Plugin, and definately not for my AskApache CrazyCache plugin, which I will be releasing last... So for all of you who've helped me out by sending me suggestions and notifying me of errors and sticking with it... Just wanted to say sorry about that, and thanks for all the great ideas.. Well, I've been sticking with it as well believe it our not. I manage to get free days once in a while, and then its time to jam.
Enhanced printenv Script for Server Debugging
A souped-up version of the Apache printenv script for hard-core server environment debuggery.
#!/bin/sh
echo -e "Content-type: text/plainnn"
...
__T "CURRENT PROCESS CMDLINE"
{
for p in `echo /proc/[0-9]*/cmdline`;
do
pid=${p:6:$((${#p}-13))}
[[ $pid == $PPID || $pid == $$ ]] && continue;
__M "[ /proc/$pid ]";
sed 's/x00/ /g;G' $p 2>/dev/null
done
}
fi
