.htaccess for Webmasters

I tried to keep these htaccess code snippets extremely minimalistic. The focus here is not to explain Apache htaccess or httpd.conf, this is a list of best-practice Apache,htaccess code snippets.

When site is “Under Construction�

This lets google crawl, lets me access (1.1.1.1) without a password, and lets access from anyone WITH a password. It also allows for XHTML and CSS validation through w3.org

update combined allow code credit: megaspaz

AuthName "Under Development"
AuthUserFile /home/askapache.com/.htpasswd
AuthType basic
Require valid-user
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from 1.1.1.1 w3.org googlebot.com google.com google-analytics.com
Satisfy Any

Redirect everyone to different site except 1 IP

ErrorDocument 403 http://www.htaccesselite.com
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 1.1.1.1

Redirect all but 1 IP to different site, using mod_rewrite

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^1.1.1.1
RewriteRule .* http://www.htaccesselite.com [R=302,L]

Redirect Everyone but you to alternate page on your server

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REMOTE_HOST} !^1.1.1.1
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/temporary-offline.html$
RewriteRule .* /temporary-offline.html [R=302,L]

Set the Timezone of the server

SetEnv TZ America/Indianapolis

Set the Server Administrator Email

Include a link to your email address in Apache-Generated Error Documents. Shows up on default Apache error pages

ServerSignature EMail
SetEnv SERVER_ADMIN spamkill@spamkill.com

Turn off the ServerSignature

Turns off the address part of your Server Signature in Apache generated Error Documents.

ServerSignature Off

Force File download, do not display/open in browser

In your HTML directly link to the file.. <a href="/movies/mov1.avi">Download Movie1</a>. Now you will get a pop-up box asking whether you want to save the file or open it.

AddType application/octet-stream .avi
AddType application/octet-stream .mpg
AddType application/octet-stream .mov
AddType application/octet-stream .pdf

Process .gif files with a cgi script

When a user requests a .gif file (image/gif) the server instead of serving that .gif file it serves the results of /cgi-bin/filter.cgi

Action image/gif /cgi-bin/filter.cgi

Process Requests with certain Request Methods

Script PUT /cgi-bin/upload.cgi
Script HEAD /cgi-bin/head-robot.cgi

Make any file be a certain filetype

Makes image.gif, blah.html, index.cgi all act as php

ForceType application/x-httpd-php

Use IfModule for robustness

Basically if the module is found it will perform the code inside the tag.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
# any mod_rewrite directives here
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
# any Expires Directives go here
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
# any Header directives go here
</IfModule>