title: apache mod_rewrite not working with .htaccess file
body: <p>OK, I've been having some issues with aws or something, such that I cannot seem to get mod_rewrite to work.</p>
  
  <p>Just for testing purposes I've done the following:</p>
  
  <p>1 used aws console to deploy fresh ami 64 bit instance from wizard</p>
  
  <p>2 yum installed apache</p>
  
  <p>3 edited /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf:
  so that</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Directory /&gt;
      Options FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride None
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>looks like</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;Directory /&gt;
      Options FollowSymLinks
      AllowOverride All
  &lt;/Directory&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>4 made sure that</p>
  
  <pre><code>LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>is in the file and uncommented.</p>
  
  <p>5 restarted apache:</p>
  
  <pre><code> sudo /sbin/service httpd restart
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>6 created two new files:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/var/www/html/test1.html
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>contains:</p>
  
  <pre><code>this is test1!
  
  /var/www/html/test2.html
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>contains:</p>
  
  <pre><code>this is test2!
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>7 created file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/var/www/html/.htaccess
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>contains (IN TOTAL):</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteEngine on
  RewriteRule ^test1\.html$ test2.html [L]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>8 went to:</p>
  
  <pre><code>http://[my aws server]/test1.html
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Am getting "this is test1!"</p>
  
  <p>I am doing something wrong here, but for the life of me I have no idea what. Any help is greatly appreciated...</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: I added nonsense chars/numbers to the beginning of my .htaccess file, and restarted apache (not 100% sure that is needed, but what the hey...), and nothing happened. In other words, I expected that going to the url [aws server]/test1.html would result in some kind of error, but it did not. I suspect apache is not even reading the .htaccess file.</p>
  
  <p>EDIT: I added the following to my httpd.conf file:</p>
  
  <pre><code>RewriteLog "/tmp/rewrite.log"
  RewriteLogLevel 9
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The file is created when I restart apache, but nothing ever goes in there when I go to either page I've set up. I'm failing to do something very, very basic here, but I'm not sure what...</p>