A .htaccess (hypertext access) file is a directory-level configuration file supported by several web servers, that allows for decentralized management of web server configuration.
The original purpose of .htaccess - reflected in its name - was to allow per-directory access control, by for example requiring a password to access the content. Nowadays however, the .htaccess files can override many other configuration settings including content type ...
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A .htaccess (hypertext access) file is a directory-level configuration file supported by several web servers, that allows for decentralized management of web server configuration.
The original purpose of .htaccess - reflected in its name - was to allow per-directory access control, by for example requiring a password to access the content. Nowadays however, the .htaccess files can override many other configuration settings including content type and character set, CGI handlers, etc.
These files are placed inside the web tree, and are able to override a subset of the server's global configuration for that directory, and all sub-directories.
For historical reasons the format of .htaccess is the same as the Apache web server's global configuration file even when used with web servers such as Sun Java System Web Server and Zeus Web Server which have very different native global configuration files.
Controlling Apache using the main server configuration file httpd.conf is often preferred...
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