# How Directory, Location and Files sections work

The sections `<Directory>`, `<Location>` and `<Files>` can contain directives which only apply to specified directories, URLs or files respectively. Also htaccess files can be used inside a directory to apply directives to that directory. This document explains how these different sections differ and how they relate to each other when Apache decides which directives apply for a particular directory or request URL.

## Directives allowed in the sections

Everything that is syntactically allowed in `<Directory>` is also allowed in `<Location>` (except a sub-`<Files>` section). Semantically, however some things, most notably `AllowOverride` and the two options `FollowSymLinks` and `SymLinksIfOwnerMatch`, make no sense in `<Location>`, `<LocationMatch>` or `<DirectoryMatch>`. The same for `<Files>` -- syntactically everything is fine, but semantically some things are different.

## How the sections are merged

The order of merging is:

1. `<Directory>` (except regular expressions) and .htaccess done simultaneously (with .htaccess, if allowed, overriding `<Directory>`)
2. `<DirectoryMatch>`, and `<Directory>` with regular expressions
3. `<Files>` and `<FilesMatch>` done simultaneously
4. `<Location>` and `<LocationMatch>` done simultaneously

Apart from `<Directory>`, each group is processed in the order that they appear in the configuration files. `<Directory>` (group 1 above) is processed in the order shortest directory component to longest. If multiple `<Directory>` sections apply to the same directory they are processed in the configuration file order. The configuration files are read in the order httpd.conf, srm.conf and access.conf. Configurations included via the `Include` directive will be treated as if they were inside the including file at the location of the `Include` directive.

Sections inside `<VirtualHost>` sections are applied after the corresponding sections outside the virtual host definition. This allows virtual hosts to override the main server configuration. (Note: this only works correctly from 1.2.2 and 1.3a2 onwards. Before those releases sections inside virtual hosts were applied before the main server).

Later sections override earlier ones.

## Notes about using sections

The general guidelines are:

- If you are attempting to match objects at the filesystem level then you must use `<Directory>` and/or `<Files>`.
- If you are attempting to match objects at the URL level then you must use `<Location>`

But a notable exception is:

- proxy control is done via `<Directory>`. This is a legacy mistake because the proxy existed prior to `<Location>`. A future version of the config language should probably switch this to `<Location>`.

Note about .htaccess parsing:

- Modifying .htaccess parsing during Location doesn't do anything because .htaccess parsing has already occurred.

`<Location>` and symbolic links:

- It is not possible to use "`Options FollowSymLinks`" or "`Options SymLinksIfOwnerMatch`" inside a `<Location>`, `<LocationMatch>` or `<DirectoryMatch>` section (the options are simply ignored). Using the options in question is only possible inside a `<Directory>` section (or a `.htaccess` file).

`<Files>` and `Options`:

- Apache won't check for it, but using an `Options` directive inside a `<Files>` section has no effect.

Another note:

- There is actually a `<Location>`/`<LocationMatch>` sequence performed just before the name translation phase (where `Aliases` and `DocumentRoots` are used to map URLs to filenames). The results of this sequence are completely thrown away after the translation has completed.