Do I need to restart Apache if I modified an htaccess file?

Question

So I changed an htaccess file on my server, and am not seeing the changes. Do I need to restart Apache if I modified an htaccess file?

Update: So I don't think this is my problem. Please see my related question: Why is my htaccess file preventing access to my MP3 file?

Am I the only one shocked that this information isn't here: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html? (It's in the WP article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Htaccess but that's hardly canonical.) @OP: I can't see how it would be necessary, since `.htaccess` files are used by shared hosting providers to allow customers to do their own config. — T.J. Crowder, May 06 '10 at 14:29

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered May 06 '10 at 14:27

9

No you don't. Make sure the htaccess is really loaded. Take a look at your access log, for example /var/log/apache/access.log

answered May 06 '10 at 14:27

Johan

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Hmm...I don't have an apache directory in /var/log – Andrew May 06 '10 at 14:38
Maybe /var/log/apache2/access.log – Johan May 06 '10 at 14:41
I don't have anything in /var/log that looks like Apache logs. Maybe there are no logs? – Andrew May 06 '10 at 14:45
on some systems it's `/var/log/httpd-access` and `/var/log/httpd-error` – Chris S May 06 '10 at 15:06
depending on how you installed apache it can also end up in /usr/local/apache2/logs or something along those lines – Catherine MacInnes May 06 '10 at 15:37

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered May 06 '10 at 15:01

It's already been answered, however you don't need to reload as they are read each time a request is made.

This is why on high performance sites you should avoid use them as you are causing an extra I/O event per request. When you're working with tens of thousands of hits an hour it's just too much overhead.

Coops.

Do I need to restart Apache if I modified an htaccess file?

2 Answers2