mod_rewrite parameters in httpd.conf

Since my last post, I have moved to Drupal 4.6.3 (setup is : Apache 2.0.54 , php 4.4.0).

I also put the rest of .htaccess into httpd.conf , into the directive for the drupal site concerned. It works fine for me.

Thanks for your reply (and apologies for the much delayed reply :-) )

Since my last post, I have moved to Drupal 4.6.3, Apache 2.0.54 and php 4.4.0. Remember that what I described was (is) a working configuration for me after quite a few try-and-fail attempts at modifying the parameters one by one. I am not a ModRewrite expert, and have come to agree with all the comments read that it is a tricky beast. Any expert advise would much appreciated on errors I may have made.

Also to be noted: I have several Drupal sites configured as <VirtualHosts> in httpd.conf, and I use the multi-site feature of Drupal 4.6 (single install of the Drupal files + use of dedicated subdirectories for config files in the "sites" directory)

Here is a summary of my step-by-step approach to end up with httpd.conf working without the need for .htaccess :

1) using the same syntax as in .htaccess :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

Result: Apache2 sends back a "bad request" error message. No content displays on screen.

2) adding '/' to the RewriteRule line :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

Result:
a) the homepage of the Drupal site displays on screen, but no template is applied. A look at the Drupal error log shows a "page not found" error for favicon.ico , themes/bluemarine/logo.png , themes/bluemarine/style.css and misc/drupal.css. It therefore looks like the RewriteCond do not work properly. It may be due to the use of a VirtualHost and multi-site Drupal install. I do not know.
b) A few stories had been created to populate the homepage with news ("Default Front Page" parameter set to "node" in the ADMINISTER => SETTINGS menu). However I get a "page not found" error message and none of the stories displays despite the fact that the "anonymous user" has "access content" rights. A look at the Drupal error log shows a "page not found" error for index.php. Interesting...

3) Adding [OR] at the end of the first RewriteCond line :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

Result:
a) the template is still not applied. Same as in 2.a above
b) The homepage now correctly displays the stories and I no longer get a "page not found" error for index.php

4) Adding specific RewriteCond lines for the 'misc' and 'themes' directories :

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^/misc
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^/themes
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]

Result: it now works !
Notes:
* [OR] is not needed apparently for the RewriteCond lines for 'misc' and 'themes'
* if I remove [OR] from the third RewriteCond line, I get a "page not found" error for index.php again.

Here is what my httpd.conf file looks like in the end for the concerned Drupal site:

<VirtualHost *:80>
# Protect files and directories from prying eyes.
<Files ~ "(\.(inc|module|pl|sh|sql|theme|engine|xtmpl)|Entries|Repositories|Root|scripts|updates)$">
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
</Files>

# Set some options.
Options -Indexes
Options +FollowSymLinks

# Customized error messages.
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php

# Set the default handler.
DirectoryIndex index.php

# Override PHP settings in Apache 2 (Apache 1.3 code removed as it is irrelevant here).
<IfModule sapi_apache2.c>
  php_value magic_quotes_gpc                0
  php_value register_globals                0
  php_value session.auto_start              0
</IfModule>

# Reduce the time dynamically generated pages are cache-able.
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
  ExpiresByType text/html A1
</IfModule>

# Various rewrite rules (old-style Cond/Rules removed as they are unnecessary in my setup)
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine on

  # Rewrite current-style URLs of the form 'index.php?q=x'.
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^/misc
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !^/themes
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^/(.*)$ /index.php?q=$1 [L,QSA]
</IfModule>

    ServerAdmin webmaster@mysite.com
    DocumentRoot c:/wwwroot/drupal_46
    ServerName www.mysite.com
    ErrorLog c:/wwwlogs/error_log
    CustomLog c:/wwwlogs/access_log combined
</VirtualHost>

Feedback from ModRewrite experts would be much welcome if there is an easier way to do things, or if I have made obvious mistakes. You should be careful and only re-use what I have described above with caution. There may be other issues (security or else) introduced by the above code.