apache, .htaccess, mod_rewrite, I hate you all

[the bassinvader]

Hi to everyone.

I got an Apache configuration problem that is sending me mad. I mean absolutly mad!!!!!!!

Ok I've set up a test web server for some of the guys at work and I'm struggling to get everything working. The problem being .htaccess and more
specifically the ability to rewrite URL's using mod_rewrite. I used SuSE 10.3 which by default doesn't include the module necesary but I've
seen to that and according to the php test page its loaded as a module so it should just be a case of enabling .htaccess in httpd.conf right??
I know the .htaccess file is good because the website works fine online so its purely a config issue on our machine here.

I've googled the problem to death and have now got to the point where I'm doubting my own name, never mind my configuration!!!

Can anybody give me some advice on how to get this working, how to configure my httpd.conf file. Do I need to make entries in other config files?


Here's the business end of my httpd.conf. At this point I doubt its correct.

# forbid access to the entire filesystem by default
<Directory /> 
    Options 
    AllowOverride None
    Order deny,allow
    Deny from all
</Directory>

<Directory "/srv/www/htdocs">          
    AllowOverride all
    Order deny,allow 
</Directory>

# use .htaccess files for overriding,
AccessFileName .htaccess
# and never show them
<Files ~ "^\.ht">
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all
</Files>

When I look through the apache errors i get "script '/srv/www/htdocs/mysite/blahblahblah.php' not found or unable to stat"

I'm close to insanity here so can anybody point me in the right direction

[elija]

Does your test site work without the .htaccess?

What have you already tried?

Can you post your .htaccess?

[the bassinvader]

Does your test site work without the .htaccess?

If you mean does the page display in a browser then yes and other non-rewrite links work fine

What have you already tried?

Being a newcomer to apache my efforts have pretty much been on the conifg files looking for options I might need etc. Like I said I've googled extensively but only seem to come up with the same answears -AllowOveride all, and enabling the rewrite module. I'm 100% sure on both of these.

Can you post your .htaccess?

Yep

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^mortgage_details_other_(.*).php$ mortgage_details_other.php?country=$1
RewriteRule ^mortgages_country_(.*).php$ mortgages_country.php?country=$1

[elija]

I'm not really an expert in .htaccess myself. I tend to have varying success

Try this...

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule mortgage_details_other_(.*).php$ mortgage_details_other.php?country=$1
RewriteRule mortgages_country_(.*).php$ mortgages_country.php?country=$1

[the bassinvader]

Nope, no change

Any other ideas?

[the bassinvader]

Ok. This is one of those "this is how I solved my problem" replies.

Like I suspected it wasn't very difficult, it just came down to something I didn't know which is specific to SuSE.

To get mod_rewrite working all I had to do was to make a change in the default-server.conf, setting AllowOverwrite to All. I'd been tearing my hair out making changes to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf as I'd already made this change there too. I dont know if you need to make this change in both files or just in default-server.conf but rewriting now works on my system .............pheww