Prevent viewing of .htaccess file

[optimierung]

Can anyone please clear the following question:

If I use in the htaccess file the following code to prevent viewing the htaccess file

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

will this also have effect on search engine spiders e.g. "reading redirect commands"?

Thanks in advance

[jdMorgan]

No, because the .htaccess file is not "called" by using a URL, it is invoked automatically as part of the server's URL-to-filename translation process.

Your code *will* prevent anyone using HTTP to examine your .htaccess file, including search engines. But search engines don't need to download that file or examine it, because it is used only by your server itself.

Jim