Using .htaccess on Ubuntu

By default all files under /var/www ignore the .htaccess file. To fix it, edit the default config file.

sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

Note: Sometimes this directive is in one of the other site files defined in this directory or in the /etc/apache2/apache2.conf file.

In the following section change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All.

<Directory /var/www/>
 Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
 AllowOverride None
 Order allow,deny
 allow from all
 # Uncomment this directive is you want to see apache2's
 # default start page (in /apache2-default) when you go to /
 #RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/
</Directory>

Also, if you need to use rewrite rules you need to enable them first. You do that with the following command.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Prior to running that command you may get an error similar to the following.

[Tue Apr 14 14:23:34 2009] [alert] [client 127.0.0.1] /var/www/wiki/.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Finally, don't forget to restart Apache.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart