Apache: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition

AllowOverride

This directive tells Apache which directives in an .htaccess file can override earlier directives.

AllowOverride override1 override2 ...
Directory

The list of AllowOverride overrides is as follows:

AuthConfig

Allows individual settings of AuthDBMGroupFile, AuthDBMUserFile, AuthGroupFile, AuthName, AuthType, AuthUserFile, and require

FileInfo

Allows AddType, AddEncoding, AddLanguage, AddCharset, AddHandler, RemoveHandler, LanguagePriority, ErrorDocument, DefaultType, Action, Redirect, RedirectMatch, RedirectTemp, RedirectPermanent, PassEnv, SetEnv, UnsetEnv, Header, RewriteEnging, RewriteOptions, RewriteBase, RewriteCond, RewriteRule, CookieTracking, and Cookiename

Indexes

Allows FancyIndexing, AddIcon, AddDescription (see Chapter 7)

Limit

Can limit access based on hostname or IP number

Options

Allows the use of the Options directive (see Chapter 13)

All

All of the previous

None

None of the previous

You might ask: if none switches multiple searches off, which of these options switches it on? The answer is any of them, or the complete absence of AllowOverride. In other words, it is on by default.

To illustrate how this works, look at .../site.htaccess/httpd3.conf, which is httpd2.conf with the authentication directives on the salespeople’s directory back in again. The Config filewants cleaners; the . myaccess file wants directors. If we now put the authorization directives, favoring cleaners, back into the Config file:

User webuser Group webgroup ServerName www.butterthlies.com ...