What A .htaccess File Is And How To Make One

What A .htaccess File Is And How To Make One

A .htaccess file is a simple ASCII file similar to that created through text editor such as Notepad or Simple Text. Most people are confused with the naming convention for the file. The term .htaccess is not a file .htaccess or somepage.htaccess because it is the file extension simply named as such. Its widely known use is related to implementing custom error page or password protected directories.

Creating the File

The creation of the file is done by opening up a text editor and saving an empty page as .htaccess. If it is not allowed to save an empty page, simply type in one character. An editor probably appends its default file extension to the name. Notepad for one would call the file .htaccess.txt but the .txt or other file extension need to be removed to enable the user to start htaccessing. This can be done by clicking the file and renaming it by removing anything that doesnt say .htaccess. It can also be renamed via telnet or the ftp program.

These files must not be uploaded as binary but rather as ASCII mode. Users can CHMOP the .htaccess file to 644 to make the file usable by the server while...