htaccess Cheatsheet

As a web developer we all have all used our htaccess file for one thing or another. However, many developers are not aware of everything an htaccess file can do for them. I have provided the following cheatsheet as a reference for a handful of these functions.

If you have some additional tips that should be added to this list, please feel free to post them in the comments and I will add them to the resource.

Enable Directory Browsing

Options +Indexes
## block a few types of files from showing
IndexIgnore *.wmv *.mp4 *.avi

Disable Directory Browsing

Options All -Indexes

Custom Error Message Pages

ErrorDocument 403 /somePage1.html
ErrorDocument 404 /somePage2.html
ErrorDocument 500 /somePage3.html

Change Default Page Order

DirectoryIndex myhome.htm index.htm index.php

Ban User IPs

order deny,allow
deny from 123.456.789.00
deny from 123.456.789.00
deny from .someDomain.com
allow from all

Block Visitors From Specific Referring Sites

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} site-to-block.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} site-to-block-2.com [NC]
RewriteRule .* – [F]

Block Specific Search Spiders From Site

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot1 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot2 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot3
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourSite.com/goAway.html

OR

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot1 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot2 [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^searchbot3
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.someOtherWebsite.com/ [R, L]

I have also written a post on the use of 301 Redirects for SEO