Cannot get .htaccess file to work inside of htdocs directory

[BrianG]

I have placed a new .htaccess file in my htdocs directory. I’m primarily interested in setting “Cache-Control: no-cache”. However, it is now clear to me that this is not working. I have gone so far as to inject lines into .htaccess to purposely break it in order to see if it is being read or not. It is very clear that .htaccess is not being read.

What else do I need to do to force this file to be read? I serve of the web claims that .htaccess not being read is usually due to the AllowOverride setting in your site configuration. (.htaccess not being read - Stack Overflow) However, I do not see any place where I can alter this setting. Does anyone know where I need to go in order to do so? Thank you.

[BrianG]

@BrianG

I serve of the web

“A search of the web” is what I meant to say

[Greenreader9]

@BrianG

Cache-Control: no-cache

That sounds like a HTML meta thing and not an .htaccess thing.

You can use this guide:

.htaccess Examples

.htaccess Guide! htaccess file allows you to set server configurations for a specific directory. This could be the root directory for your website or an /images or /downloads directory. It is used on the Apache web server. It can also be used on a handful of other web servers… I’m going to give you a mini-guide on htaccess. Hope you find it useful! Warning: BEFORE you edit your .htacces file, store a copy of it in case you mess it up! Redirect to https RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTPS} …

[alexvf]

Why don’t you create a 301 redirect?

Create a rule in the .htaccess to redirect the request made from the root of your domain to Google:
Redirect 301 / https://google.com

If Google opens when you access your domain in a brower, it’s working.

[BrianG]

@Greenreader9

That sounds like a HTML meta thing and not an .htaccess thing.

Thanks Greenreader9 … oddly, I was originally going to go that route. However, most of what I read on the web told me to use .htaccess instead. Do you (or anyone else reading this) know how well the meta tags work? I guess I’ll have to try them and find out!

[BrianG]

@alexvf

Why don’t you create a 301 redirect?

Create a rule in the .htaccess to redirect the request made from the root of your domain to Google:
Redirect 301 / https://google.com

If Google opens when you access your domain in a brower, it’s working.

Thank you alexvf! Google does indeed open in my browser, so I guess .htaccess must be working after all!

[Greenreader9]

@BrianG

However, most of what I read on the web told me to use .htaccess instead.

Yep! .htaccess is better!

@BrianG

Do you (or anyone else reading this) know how well the meta tags work?

The meta redirect tag dosen’t work as well as .htaccess, so .htaccess is better.

@BrianG

Thank you alexvf! Google does indeed open in my browser, so I guess .htaccess must be working after all!

Yep! Just change google.com to what ever you want it to be!

[TigerMANEK426]

AFAIK the Header option is disabled in .htaccess. You can do it via PHP using the header() function (see code below)

header("Content-Type: application/json");
header("Expires: on, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT");
header("Last-Modified: " . gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s") . " GMT");
header("Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0", false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");

The AllowOveride option (from what I can remember) can only be altered in the Apache httpd.conf which is located at the root of the server.

Your best option is to use the PHP code above (place it at the top of your PHP file)