htaccess for laravel without affecting subdomains - apache

Question

I'm trying to get htaccess working for laravel 5.4, but without it affecting the sub-domains that are created.
My current htaccess
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
What I've tried is setting an htaccess in the sub-domain folders with the follwing:
RewriteEngine On
As I read elsewhere this should stop the top domain htaccess, yet when for example I have a sub-domain like dev.example.com, it will redirect to dev.example.com/dev
Anyway of getting rid of the /dev at the end?
Folder structure:
app
bootstrap
config
database
public
storage
resources
routes
dev --> subdomain

Answer 1

Upfront, I don't see how this /dev is related to the directives, you have shown. None of them do anything to add a /dev anywhere. Maybe it's just the subdirectory applied somehow.
The claim "this should stop the top domain htaccess" is not entirely true. From Apache - How directives are applied
The configuration directives found in a .htaccess file are applied to the directory in which the .htaccess file is found, and to all subdirectories thereof.
However, it is important to also remember that there may have been .htaccess files in directories higher up. Directives are applied in the order that they are found.
Therefore, a .htaccess file in a particular directory may override directives found in .htaccess files found higher up in the directory tree. And those, in turn, may have overridden directives found yet higher up, or in the main server configuration file itself.
So an .htaccess doesn't stop another .htaccess, but a directive overrides a directive. This means, you may have some directive from one .htaccess and another unrelated directive from the top level .htaccess.
In your case, RewriteEngine on just overrides RewriteEngine on from the main .htaccess file.
If you want to prevent any RewriteRule from the top .htaccess, I would rather try
RewriteEngine off