.htaccess files, PHP, includes directories, and windows XAMPP configuration nightmare

XAMPP makes configuring a local LAMP stack for windows a breeze. So it's quite disappointing that enabling .htaccess files is such a nightmare.

My problem:I've got a PHP application that requires apache/php to search for an /includes/ directory contained within the application. To do this, .htaccess files must be allowed in Apache and the .htaccess file must specify exactly where the includes directory is.

Problem is, I can't get my Apache config to view these .htaccess files. I had major hassles installing this app at uni and getting the admins there to help with the setup. This shouldn't be so hard but for some reason I just can't get Apache to play nice.

This is my setup:

c:\xamppc:\xampp\htdocsc:\xampp\apache\conf\httpd.conf - where I've made the changes listed belowc:\xampp\apache\bin\php.ini - where changes to this file affect the PHP installationIt is interesting to note that c:\xampp\php\php.ini changes mean nothing - this is NOT the ini that affects the PHP installation.

The following lines are additions I've made to the httpd.conf file

#AccessFileName .htaccessAccessFileName htaccess.txt## The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd# files from being viewed by Web clients.##<Files ~ "^\.ht"><Files ~ "^htaccess\.">    Order allow,deny    Deny from all</Files><Directory "c:/xampp/htdocs">## AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in# .htaccess files.# It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:#   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit#    AllowOverride All## Controls who can get stuff from this server.#    Order allow,deny    Allow from all</Directory>

The following is the entire .htaccess file contained in:c:\xampp\htdocs\application\htaccess.txt

<Files ~ "\.inc$">  Order deny,allow  Deny from all</Files>php_value default_charset "UTF-8"php_value include_path ".;c:\xampp\htdocs\application\includes"php_value register_globals 0php_value magic_quotes_gpc 0php_value magic_quotes_runtime 0php_value magic_quotes_sybase 0php_value session.use_cookies 1php_value session.use_only_cookies 0php_value session.use_trans_sid 1php_value session.gc_maxlifetime 3600php_value arg_separator.output "&amp;"php_value url_rewriter.tags "a=href,area=href,frame=src,input=src,fieldset="

The includes directory exists at the location specified.

When I try to access the application I receive the following error:

Warning: require(include.general.inc) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\xampp\htdocs\application\menu\logon.php on line 21

Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required include.general.inc (include_path='.;C:\xampp\php\pear\random') in C:\xampp\htdocs\application\menu\logon.php on line 21

The include path c..\random\ is specified in the php.ini file listed above. The XAMPP install fails to allow another include path as specified in the htaccess.txt file.

I'm guessing there's probably an error with the httpd.conf OR the htaccess.txt file.. but it doesn't seem to be reading the .htaccess file. I've tried to be as thorough as possible so forgive the verbosity of the post.

Now I know a workaround could be to simply add the include_path to the PHP file, but I'm not going to have access to the php.ini file on the location I plan to deploy my app. I will, however, be able to request the server admin allows .htaccess files.

renamed htacces.txt to .htaccess and ammended the appropriate directives in the httpd.conf file and all seems to work. The application suggested the naming of htaccess.txt and the ammended directives in the httpd. These are obviously wrong (at least for a XAMPP stack).

By the way, using ini_set() is a much friendlier way if the app needs to be deployed to multiple locations so thanks especially for that pointer.