How to enable mod_rewrite for Apache 2.2

Question

I've got fresh install of Apache 2.2 on my Vista machine, everything works fine, except mod rewrite.

I've uncommented

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.s

but none of my rewrite rules works, even simple ones like

RewriteRule not_found %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/index.php?page=404

All the rules I'm using are working on my hosting, so they should be ok, so my question is, is there any hidden thing in apache configuration, that could block mod rewrite?

Answer 1

Turn the engine on for your host or vhost or directory

<Directory /var/www/website/html>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/images/
    RewriteRule ... ...
    RewriteRule 
</Directory>

Or in your vhost without the directory directive.

Answer 2

There's obviously more than one way to do it, but I would suggest using the more standard:

ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?page=404

Answer 3

<edit>

Just noticed you said mod_rewrite.s instead of mod_rewrite.so - hope that's a typo in your question and not in the httpd.conf file! :)

</edit>

I'm more used to using Apache on Linux, but I had to do this the other day.

First off, take a look in your Apache install directory. (I'll be assuming you installed it to "C:\Program Files" here)

Take a look in the folder: "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\modules" and make sure that there's a file called mod_rewrite.so in there. (It should be, it's provided as part of the default install.

Next, open up "C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\Apache2.2\conf" and open httpd.conf. Make sure the line:

#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

is uncommented:

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

Also, if you want to enable the RewriteEngine by default, you might want to add something like

<IfModule mod_rewrite>
    RewriteEngine On
</IfModule>

to the end of your httpd.conf file.

If not, make sure you specify

RewriteEngine On

somewhere in your .htaccess file.