.htaccess “Options not allowed here”

Question

I have this in my .htaccess:

Options +FollowSymLinks

And I get the following error in the apache error_log:

.htaccess: Options not allowed he         


        

Answer 1

I just installed the most recent version of XAMPP and thought to share how I solved the same problem.

This is a XAMPP specific setting (with every new XAMPP install). The most recent up to date XAMPP as of today - XAMPP 1.8.3 have a setting in /xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf that's causing your "Server Error" message.

And then you get the following error in your error log:

.htaccess: Options not allowed here

Open /xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf and find:

    
        
            php_admin_flag safe_mode off
        
    
    AllowOverride AuthConfig

and change

AllowOverride AuthConfig

with

AllowOverride All

No authentication or authorization will be required after the change UNLESS you specify it in your httpd.conf, extra confs or in .htaccess.

You may also want to read the Apache documentation for the option AllowOverride http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/en/mod/core.html#allowoverride and choose more optimal and secure setting that will allow you to use your .htaccess without causing a server error.

Also keep in mind that you can find a better place to rewrite the rule above depending on the results that you'd like to achieve. In my case this is a satisfactory change.