How is htaccess used with subdomains?

best to place an htaccess file in each subdomain?

[zollerwagner]

For a multilingual site, I have the different language versions in subdomains of the same domain name.

The site's .htaccess file:

sets up parsing of html pages as php

assigns error documents for specific error numbers

disallows indexes, allows includes and following symbolic links

forces use of canonical URLs with rewrite

uses rewrite to block hotlinking

sets up permanent redirects for any pages that are renamed or no longer in use

I have three questions.
1. Is it best to use a different .htaccess file for each subdomain?

2. I tried placing just one .htaccess in the www. root. The html pages did get processed as php, even in the subdomains, but other functions didn't seem to work, particularly the hotlinking. (Images in the subdomains were blocked when they should have been visible.)
Is that because when a page is requested from the subdomain, the server doesn't go to the www root first? Or is this possible and I just did something wrong?

3. Am I right in assuming that I don't can't force a canonical URL in the subdomain? Trying that put the server in a loop. Actually, it looks like it's not needed because you can't type a non-canonical URL that goes to the subdomain, can you?

Thanks!

[moltar]

Instead of duplicating the same file across your subdomains, you can create links if you are on *nix based system.

ln -s target linkname

- creates a symbolic link, like a shortcut to the target directory or filename.

ln target linkname

- creates the default hard link. Deleting this will delete the targetted file or directory.

[zollerwagner]

That's an interesting idea. Is the main advantage in having just one file to maintain?

I supposed I'd have to have command line access to the system to use a soft link.

Would I add the symbolic link in the directory in which I want to make that file available?

To force the canonical URLs would I just add something like this below?

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} .
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}!^(www\.¦en\.¦ast\.¦fr\.)mydomain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ [mydomain.com...] [R=301,L]

That assumes a root (www) and three different subdomains (en, ast, and fr).

[zollerwagner]

Hmm. Now that I've fixed a problem with referring to the multiple subdomains (one\.¦two\.¦three\.) I'm not seeing any problems.

Do you only need one htaccess file even if you have subdomains?

[jdMorgan]

Subdomains don't mean anything special to .htaccess. By the time .htaccess is run, you are accessing files, not URLs. So, I suspect you're really asking "How is .htaccess used with subdomains mapped into subdirectories?" and the answer is, "It's used just like it is in any other subdirectory." Maybe that will clear things up a bit... I hope so, anyway. :)

Jim

[zollerwagner]

That makes sense, Jim. In fact, as you say, if you look at the file structure in the site, the subdomains are just folders in the root directory. So I suppose that's why the one .htaccess file in the root works just like it would with folders in a site that doesn't have subdomains. Well, that makes things a lot easier. Thanks!