Enabling mod_rewrite in Apache 2.2

By default CentOS or RHEL flavours of Linux has Apache 2.2 installed. It often becomes a requirement to enable mod_rewrite on these servers. Techs who have been working with cPanel and server with control panels often finds it difficult to troubleshoot issues with a bare server. There are a few things to check or commands to execute in such case where mod_rewrite is shown enabled in the httpd.conf, but not working.

[root@cave html]# httpd -V
Server version: Apache/2.2.3

[root@cave html]# httpd -M
Loaded Modules:
core_module (static)
mpm_prefork_module (static)
http_module (static)
so_module (static)
auth_basic_module (shared)
auth_digest_module (shared)
….
…….
….
rewrite_module (shared)
proxy_module (shared)
proxy_balancer_module (shared)
proxy_ftp_module (shared)
proxy_http_module (shared)
proxy_connect_module (shared)

[root@cave html]# a2enmod rewrite

a2enmod is only to be used if the rewrite_module is not enabled in httpd.conf

Check for the “AllowOverride” settings. It should be set to “All“. By default it will be “None”

Things should work fine after this. Also I found a small good script to check at this URL to see whether mod_rewrite is enabled or not http://www.webune.com/forums/how-to-test-check-if-mod-rewrite-is-enabled-t40.html

Good Luck guys!

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