Getting Under the Skin of the .htaccess File

I have a confession to make. Personally, when I think about touching my .htaccess file, I break out in a sweat and start shaking. It’s not that the .htaccess file is so scary. It’s not. But it can be. I know that if I flub it up, even a little, my site is toasted.

WordPress and its famous pretty permalinks makes exploring the .htaccess file even more frightening with its sophisticated coding that controls how your web page address (URL) will look when displayed. Reading through the code, I swear it’s a highly encoded secret spy message from an alien race. You think I jest? Here, look. This is an excerpt from one of their secret encrypted messages:

RewriteRule ^author/([^/]+)/?$ /index.php?author_name=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&feed=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&day=$3&paged=$4 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1
   &monthnum=$2&day=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ 
   /index.php?year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?
   year=$1&monthnum=$2&feed=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?
   year=$1&monthnum=$2&paged=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{1,2})/?$ /index.php?year=$1&
   monthnum=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?
   year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?
   year=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/page/?([0-9]{1,})/?$ /index.php?year=
   $1&paged=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/?$ /index.php?year=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/feed/(feed|rdf|rss|rss2|atom)/?$ /index.php?
   author_name=$1&feed=$2 [QSA,L]

See? It’s really a message from aliens.

Whether or not you can read the above .htaccess snippet, there is still a lot of mystery behind what the .htaccess file is and how it works, as well as how to break the secret code and make it work for you.

Brainstorms and Raves’ article, “Behind the Scenes with Apache’s .htaccess” is a wonderfully simple step-by-step look at what the .htaccess file is and how it makes your website or blog work.

I prefer to think of .htaccess as just one of a variety of approaches and tools for managing URLs (especially URL redirecting), managing custom error pages, and combating bad bots and spammers. It’s a fantastic tool that I’m thrilled to be able to use for my own websites finally, including this one.

Regarding combating bad bots and spammers, .htaccess is one of several tools and approaches that I use. My goal is to keep things simple and block the bad guys without blocking everyone else. No one single approach can do it all, though, and bad bots and spammers continually work on ways to get past all the blocking approaches discussed online. So far I’m able to block nearly all of the bad bots and spammers, but new ones always come along, so I watch my logs closely, too.

The .htaccess file is just one of the many tools web page designers and developers have at their fingertips to create their website or blog. It’s important to learn how to use the .htaccess. file as a tool, and to not be afraid of it. I’m still learning, as I shake in my sandals.

Go forth, brave web and blog designers and developers, and conquer the .htaccess file!

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