.htaccess files should only be used as a last resort

[AD7six]

Taken from http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html

"In general, you should never use .htaccess files unless you don't have access to the main server configuration file."

Htaccess files themselves are a performance hit, probably most people reading this ticket already know that if a request is received for:

/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/htdocs/foo/bar/zum/index.html

all of these paths are checked for a htaccess file

/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/htdocs/foo/bar/zum/.htaccess
/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/htdocs/foo/bar/.htaccess
/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/htdocs/foo/.htaccess
/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/htdocs/.htaccess
/var/www/vhosts/somedomain/.htaccess
/var/www/vhosts/.htaccess
/var/www/.htaccess
/var/.htaccess
/.htaccess

That's a lot of file access for every request, especially if it's infact unnecessary because you have access to put your request logic in the config file. Therefore I suggest adding a simple header to the htaccess file along the lines of:

# NOTE      .htaccess files are an overhead, this logic should be in your apache config if at all possible
# see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/htaccess.html for more information

[paulirish]

Yup I like it..

definitely would like to promote httpd.conf -- though folks on many shared hosts (like dreamhost, etc) don't have access to that. so it's a soft suggestion. :)

do you want to file a pull req?

[AD7six]

Done, I was expecting some debate :)

As the pull request is a seperate issue I'm going to close this ticket (or try to..).

[paulirish]

I'll tweak the text a little to be a little bit more clear about httpd.conf and shit but in general you're totally right. :)

thx man