An alternative to restarting to change Config files is to use
the
.htaccess mechanism,
which is explained in Chapter 5. In effect, the
changeable parts of the Config file are stored in a secondary file
kept in .../htdocs. Unlike the Config file,
which is read by Apache at startup, this file is read at each access.
The advantage is flexibility, because the webmaster can edit it
whenever he likes without interrupting the server. The disadvantage
is a fairly serious degradation in performance, because the file has
to be laboriously parsed to serve each request. The webmaster can
limit what people do in their .htaccess files
with the AllowOverride directive.
He may also want to prevent clients seeing the .htaccess files themselves. This can be achieved by including these lines in the Config file:
<Files .htaccess> order allow,deny deny from all </Files>