181
votes

I want to set the AllowOverride all But I don't know how to do it. I have found the following code by searching the google and pasted it in .htaccess:

<Directory>
        AllowOverride All
</Directory>

But after pasting it I started receiving "Internal Server Error"

Can anyone guide me where to put this code or how to do it?

12
The <Directory> directive requires a path argument.FKEinternet
There are several things wrong with this approach, not just the missing directory. Please see my answer below: stackoverflow.com/a/67792873/2444812Sybille Peters

12 Answers

354
votes

In case you are on Ubuntu, edit the file /etc/apache2/apache2.conf (here we have an example of /var/www):

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
</Directory>

and change it to;

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
</Directory>

then,

sudo service apache2 restart

You may need to also do sudo a2enmod rewrite to enable module rewrite.

63
votes

The main goal of AllowOverride is for the manager of main configuration files of apache (the one found in /etc/apache2/ mainly) to decide which part of the configuration may be dynamically altered on a per-path basis by applications.

If you are not the administrator of the server, you depend on the AllowOverride Level that theses admins allows for you. So that they can prevent you to alter some important security settings;

If you are the master apache configuration manager you should always use AllowOverride None and transfer all google_based example you find, based on .htaccess files to Directory sections on the main configuration files. As a .htaccess content for a .htaccess file in /my/path/to/a/directory is the same as a <Directory /my/path/to/a/directory> instruction, except that the .htaccess dynamic per-HTTP-request configuration alteration is something slowing down your web server. Always prefer a static configuration without .htaccess checks (and you will also avoid security attacks by .htaccess alterations).

By the way in your example you use <Directory> and this will always be wrong, Directory instructions are always containing a path, like <Directory /> or <Directory C:> or <Directory /my/path/to/a/directory>. And of course this cannot be put in a .htaccess as a .htaccess is like a Directory instruction but in a file present in this directory. Of course you cannot alter AllowOverride in a .htaccess as this instruction is managing the security level of .htaccess files.

19
votes

Goto your_severpath/apache_ver/conf/ Open the file httpd.conf in Notepad.

Find this line:

#LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

Remove the hash symbol:

LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

Then goto <Directory />

and change to:

<Directory />
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Then restart your local server.

13
votes

On Linux, in order to relax access to the document root, you should edit the following file:

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

And depending on what directory level you want to relax access to, you have to change the directive

AllowOverride None

to

AllowOverride All

So, assuming you want to allow access to files on the /var/www/html directory, you should change the following lines from:

<Directory "/var/www/html">
 AllowOverride None
</Directory>

to

<Directory "/var/www/html">
 AllowOverride All
</Directory>
11
votes

If you are using Linux you may edit the code in the directory of

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

now, here find the code line kinda like

# AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
# It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
#   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
#
    AllowOverride None
#
# Controls who can get stuff from this server.
#
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

</Directory>

Change the AllowOveride None to AllowOveride All

Now now you can set any kind of rule in your .httacess file inside your directories if any other operating system just try to find the file of httpd.conf and edit it.

7
votes

As other users explained here about the usage of allowoveride directive, which is used to give permission to .htaccess usage. one thing I want to point out that never use allowoverride all if other users have access to write .htaccess instead use allowoveride as to permit certain modules.

Such as AllowOverride AuthConfig mod_rewrite Instead of

AllowOverride All

Because module like mod_mime can render your server side files as plain text.

6
votes

I think you want to set it in your httpd.conf file instead of the .htaccess file.

I am not sure what OS you use, but this link for Ubuntu might give you some pointers on what to do.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingUseOfApacheHtaccessFiles

4
votes

enter code hereif you are using linux you have to edit the

`/etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf`

under the Documentroot . add the following code

`<Directory /var/www/>
  AllowOverride all
  Require all granted
</Directory>` 

then ,

`sudo service apache2 restart`

and you have to enable the apache mod rewrite

`sudo a2enmod rewrite`
1
votes

I also meet this problem, and I found the solution as 2 step below: 1. In sites-enabled folder of apache2, you edit in Directory element by set "AllowOverride all" (should be "all" not "none") 2. In kohana project in www folder, rename "example.htaccess" to ".htaccess"

I did it on ubuntu. Hope that it will help you.

0
votes

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server

Make sure you are editing the right file https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/book_sle_admin/data/sec_apache2_configuration.html

httpd.conf

The main Apache server configuration file. Avoid changing this file. It primarily contains include statements and global settings. Overwrite global settings in the pertinent configuration files listed here. Change host-specific settings (such as document root) in your virtual host configuration.

In such case vhosts.d/*.conf must be edited

0
votes

Plus those upvoted correct answers sometimes same error could be seen because of mismatched and different settings on SSL part of webserver configurations. (Obviously when not using .htaccess file).

0
votes

There are several answers but there a number of things wrong with this question and I would like to address these:

  • If you get an error (e.g. 500), look in the log files (if you have access to them). e.g. /var/log/apache2/ssl_error.log

e.g.

cat /var/log/apache2/ssl_error.log
[Tue Jun 01 19:05:34 2021] [alert] [pid 31154] config.c(2119): 
[client *******] /var/www/mysite/public/tmp/.htaccess:
<Directory not allowed here [lid YLZo3quRlv2EKOAABVoFLwAAAIM]
  • Putting AllowOverrides in a .htaccess makes no sense and is not allowed. See Context. See also my explanation below. It should be defined in the Apache configuration (e.g. /etc/apache2)
  • Allowing everything is usually not the best idea. Be as restrictive as possible!
  • the Directory directive is missing a directory, should be e.g. <Directory /var/www/html/etc>
  • the Directory directive does not make sense in an .htaccess. The location of the .htaccess in a directory already has the effect of making the statements within apply to a specific directory
  • do not mix and match snippets that are intended to be put in the Apache configuration (e.g. in /etc/apache2/...) with statements that are intended to be put in .htaccess - though most of the time, they will be identical, there are some subtle differences
  • If you have the possibility to modify the Apache configuration directly, do not use .htaccess and deactivate it. (for performance reasons, among others. Also you can have all configuration in one place, put it in version control or manage it via a software configuration management tool, e.g. Puppet, Ansible, SaltStack)

Unless you really cannot access and modify the Apache configuration directly, you do not need .htaccess. This is a common misconception.

That you saw a 500 error proves my point. If you change configuration in the Apache configuration directly (and not in .htaccess), you will usually get an error message with an explanation and information about the error and the line number (e.g. when you do service apache2 reload or apachectl configtest).


Also, look in the documentation. It is really quite good. For most directives, you can find where they apply (see "Context").

For example, for IfModule, you can see:

Context: server config, virtual host, directory, .htaccess

For, AllowOverrides it is:

Context: directory

Note the missing .htaccess in the Context!

Instead of googling for information which repeat the same mistakes over and over, look in the documentation!

Docs