I recently encountered a baffling situation where my .htaccess rules were being completely ignored on a Fedora 13 LAMP server. Despite having AllowOverride All properly configured in my VirtualHost, directives like these had no effect:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php

Even extreme test cases like completely blocking access didn't work:

order deny,allow
deny from all

My virtual host configuration in /etc/httpd/conf.d/virtual.conf appeared correct:

<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName              ourwebsite.com
    DocumentRoot            /var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot
    <Directory "/var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot">
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

After extensive testing, I discovered the root cause in Apache's main configuration. The default <Directory /> directive was overriding my VirtualHost settings:

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None  # This was the culprit!
</Directory>

Changing this to AllowOverride All immediately made my .htaccess rules work. This reveals an important lesson about Apache's configuration hierarchy.

Apache processes directory directives in a specific order:

1. Main server config (httpd.conf)
2. VirtualHost directives
3. .htaccess files

The most restrictive setting takes precedence. In my case, the global AllowOverride None was more restrictive than the VirtualHost's AllowOverride All.

For most production environments, I recommend this approach:

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all denied
</Directory>

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

This provides security while still allowing .htaccess overrides in your web directories.

If you're experiencing similar problems, try these debugging steps:

# Check if mod_rewrite is loaded
apachectl -M | grep rewrite

# Test your configuration syntax
apachectl configtest

# Verify which directives are being processed
tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log

Remember that file permissions also matter - ensure your .htaccess file is readable by the Apache user.

For performance-critical environments, consider moving your rules directly into the VirtualHost configuration:

<VirtualHost *>
    ServerName ourwebsite.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot
    
    <Directory "/var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot">
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [L]
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

This eliminates .htaccess parsing overhead while maintaining the same functionality.

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The scenario where .htaccess files are completely ignored despite having proper AllowOverride All directives in VirtualHost configurations is more common than many developers realize. This issue typically manifests when:

• Rewrite rules don't execute
• Access control directives have no effect
• Custom error documents fail to work

The root cause often lies in Apache's configuration hierarchy. The key discovery was:

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
</Directory>

This default configuration in httpd.conf takes precedence over VirtualHost-specific settings, effectively disabling .htaccess processing globally.

To properly fix this, we need to modify both the global and VirtualHost configurations:

# In httpd.conf or apache2.conf
<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all denied
</Directory>

# Then in your VirtualHost configuration
<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName ourwebsite.com
    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot
    
    <Directory "/var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot">
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        
        # For Apache 2.4+
        Require all granted
        
        # For Apache 2.2
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

After making changes:

1. Restart Apache: sudo systemctl restart httpd
2. Check syntax: apachectl configtest
3. Verify using this test .htaccess:

# Force 403 Forbidden for testing
Order deny,allow
Deny from all

For systems where modifying the root Directory directive isn't possible:

# Option 1: Move directives to main config
<Directory "/var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot">
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [L]
</Directory>

# Option 2: Use LocationMatch
<LocationMatch "^/.*">
    # Your rules here
</LocationMatch>

Ensure these modules are enabled:

• mod_rewrite
• mod_authz_host
• mod_alias

Enable with: sudo a2enmod rewrite

If problems persist, check:

# View applied configuration
apachectl -S

# Check enabled modules
apachectl -M

# Verify directory permissions
namei -l /var/www/html/ourwebsite.com/docroot/.htaccess