How do i make mod_rewrite work without compiling apache2?

rules not working!

[sandhya]

My web hosting has Apache/2.0.46 (Red Hat) Server with php. I have tried the simple rewrite rule in .htaccess file

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^alice.html$ bob.html

with a simple file alice.html.

In my conf file, the loadmodule of mod_rewrite is enabled. Can you please tell me why I get the error 404 Not Found.

The requested URL /test/bob.html was not found on this server.

Is there a way i can make mod_rewrite to work without compiling apache, disturbing the current server?

[chrisjoha]

Well, it would seem that your rewriting is working just as expected. You ar rewriting every reuest for 'alice.html' to go to 'bob.html'. The server does that, and then throws a 404 when it cannot find the 'bob.html' file. Maybe you confused the direction of it and expected 'bob.html' to become 'alice.html'?

[sandhya]

Thanks chrisjoha,
As you said i was confused! That was a test i conducted to make sure my mod_rewrite works or not.

We use oscommerce for our site, and adding this in .htaccess file really soved my problem :)

"
AcceptPathInfo on

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule catalog/([0-9]+)/([a-z][0-9]+)/ /catalog/index.php?cPath=$1&osCsid=$2

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
RewriteRule ^(.*) index.php
"

I hope this will help all oscommerce users using apache 2 with seo friendly urls turned on.

Thanks again!