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<title>How Directory, Location and Files sections work</title>
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<h3>Apache HTTP Server</h3>
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<h1 align="CENTER">How Directory, Location and Files sections
work</h1>
<p>The sections <a
href="mod/core.html#directory"><code><Directory></code></a>,
<a
href="mod/core.html#location"><code><Location></code></a>
and <a
href="mod/core.html#files"><code><Files></code></a> can
contain directives which only apply to specified directories,
URLs or files respectively. Also htaccess files can be used
inside a directory to apply directives to that directory. This
document explains how these different sections differ and how
they relate to each other when Apache decides which directives
apply for a particular directory or request URL.</p>
<h2>Directives allowed in the sections</h2>
<p>Everything that is syntactically allowed in
<code><Directory></code> is also allowed in
<code><Location></code> (except a
sub-<code><Files></code> section). Semantically, however
some things, most notably <code>AllowOverride</code> and the
two options <code>FollowSymLinks</code> and
<code>SymLinksIfOwnerMatch</code>, make no sense in
<code><Location></code>,
<code><LocationMatch></code> or
<code><DirectoryMatch></code>. The same for
<code><Files></code> -- syntactically everything is fine,
but semantically some things are different.</p>
<h2>How the sections are merged</h2>
<p>The order of merging is:</p>
<ol>
<li><code><Directory></code> (except regular
expressions) and .htaccess done simultaneously (with
.htaccess, if allowed, overriding
<code><Directory></code>)</li>
<li><code><DirectoryMatch></code>, and
<code><Directory></code> with regular expressions</li>
<li><code><Files></code> and
<code><FilesMatch></code> done simultaneously</li>
<li><code><Location></code> and
<code><LocationMatch></code> done simultaneously</li>
</ol>
<p>Apart from <code><Directory></code>, each group is
processed in the order that they appear in the configuration
files. <code><Directory></code> (group 1 above) is
processed in the order shortest directory component to longest.
If multiple <code><Directory></code> sections apply to
the same directory they they are processed in the configuration
file order. The configuration files are read in the order
httpd.conf, srm.conf and access.conf. Configurations included
via the <code>Include</code> directive will be treated as if
they were inside the including file at the location of the
<code>Include</code> directive.</p>
<p>Sections inside <code><VirtualHost></code> sections
are applied <em>after</em> the corresponding sections outside
the virtual host definition. This allows virtual hosts to
override the main server configuration. (Note: this only works
correctly from 1.2.2 and 1.3a2 onwards. Before those releases
sections inside virtual hosts were applied <em>before</em> the
main server).</p>
<p>Later sections override earlier ones.</p>
<h2>Notes about using sections</h2>
<p>The general guidelines are:</p>
<ul>
<li>If you are attempting to match objects at the filesystem
level then you must use <code><Directory></code> and/or
<code><Files></code>.</li>
<li>If you are attempting to match objects at the URL level
then you must use <code><Location></code></li>
</ul>
<p>But a notable exception is:</p>
<ul>
<li>proxy control is done via <code><Directory></code>.
This is a legacy mistake because the proxy existed prior to
<code><Location></code>. A future version of the config
language should probably switch this to
<code><Location></code>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Note about .htaccess parsing:</p>
<ul>
<li>Modifying .htaccess parsing during Location doesn't do
anything because .htaccess parsing has already occurred.</li>
</ul>
<p><code><Location></code> and symbolic links:</p>
<ul>
<li>It is not possible to use "<code>Options
FollowSymLinks</code>" or "<code>Options
SymLinksIfOwnerMatch</code>" inside a
<code><Location></code>,
<code><LocationMatch></code> or
<code><DirectoryMatch></code> section (the options are
simply ignored). Using the options in question is only
possible inside a <code><Directory></code> section (or
a <code>.htaccess</code> file).</li>
</ul>
<p><code><Files></code> and <code>Options</code>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Apache won't check for it, but using an
<code>Options</code> directive inside a
<code><Files></code> section has no effect.</li>
</ul>
<p>Another note:</p>
<ul>
<li>There is actually a
<code><Location></code>/<code><LocationMatch></code>
sequence performed just before the name translation phase
(where <code>Aliases</code> and <code>DocumentRoots</code>
are used to map URLs to filenames). The results of this
sequence are completely thrown away after the translation has
completed.</li>
</ul>
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<h3 align="CENTER">Apache HTTP Server</h3>
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