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howto use htaccess apache

I just came across a great article that give at least a hundred htaccess examples in different situations.  It can be found here.

Table of Contents

• General
  1. htaccess definition
  2. htaccess comments
  3. important information
  4. performance issues
  5. regex character definitions
  6. redirection header codes
• Essentials
  1. htaccess comments
  2. enable basic rewriting
  3. enable symbolic links
  4. enable AllowOverride
  5. rename the htaccess file
  6. retain httpd.conf rules
• Performance
  1. disable AllowOverride
  2. pass the character set
  3. preserve bandwidth
  4. disable the server signature
  5. set the server timezone
  6. set admin email address
  7. enable file caching
  8. set default language & character set
  9. declare specific/additional MIME types
  10. send headers without meta tags
  11. limit request methods to GET/PUT
  12. process files according to request method
  13. execute various file types via CGI script
• Security
  1. prevent access to htaccess
  2. prevent access to any file
  3. prevent acess to multiple file types
  4. prevent unauthorized directory browsing
  5. change the default index page
  6. disguise script extensions
  7. limit access to the LAN
  8. secure directories by IP or domain
  9. deny/allow domain access for IP range
  10. deny/allow multiple IP addresses on one line
  11. miscellaneous rules for blocking/allowing
  12. stop hotlinking, serve alternate content
  13. block robots, rippers, and offline browsers
  14. more stupid blocking tricks
  15. even more scum-blocking tricks
  16. password-protect directories
  17. password-protect files, directories, and more
  18. require SSL (secure sockets layer)
  19. automatically CHMOD various file types
  20. disguise all file extensions
  21. limit file upload size
  22. disable script execution
• Usability
  1. minimize CSS image flicker in IE6
  2. deploy custom error pages
  3. provide a universal error document
  4. employ basic URL spelling check
  5. force media downloads
  6. display file source code
  7. redirect visitors during site development
  8. provide password-prompt during site development
  9. prevent access during specified time periods
• Redirects
  1. important note about redirecting via mod_rewrite
  2. redirect from www-domain to non-www-domain
  3. redirect from an old domain to a new domain
  4. redirect string variations to a specific address
  5. other fantastic redirect tricks
  6. send visitors to a subdomain
  7. more fun with RewriteCond & RewriteRule
  8. more fun with Redirect 301 & RedirectMatch 301
• WordPress
  1. secure wordPress contact forms
  2. wordpress permalinks
• Random
  1. activate SSI for HTML/SHTML file types
  2. grant CGI access in a specific directory
  3. disable magic_quotes_gpc for PHP enabled servers
  4. enable MD5 digests
  5. expression engine tricks
• References

Here are some of the references this article uses:

• ¹ Wikipedia htaccess Resource
• ² Apache Cookbook
• ³ Ultimate htaccess Article
• More on regular expressions
• Apache htaccess Reference
• Apache htaccess Tutorial
• Apache mod_rewrite
• htaccess Forum
• Behind the Scenes with htaccess
• Automatic htaccess file generator