.htacces files doesnt work despite of AllowOverride All - apache

Question

I dont know why but my simple .htaccess file doesnt work on my server.
/var/www/html/.htaccess
RewriteEngine On
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^/$ [R=301,L]
#RewriteRule ^(.*)$ htt://www.onet.pl/$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^/lol$ /dev/public
I tried to make a test with either redirection of all traffic to another server or simple redirection myaddress/lol to myadress/dev/public where i have index.html file.
Modul REWRITE is already enabled
#a2enmod rewrite
Module rewrite already enabled
And this is my /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerAdmin webmaster#localhost
DocumentRoot /var/www/html
<Directory /var/www/html>
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
When i write rubbish in /var/www/html/.htaccess and open servers main address then it throws error message and in apache logs is see some error about wrong command in .htaccess file.
But neither of redirections placed in .htaccess works. Second redirection does not redirects from adress/lol to address/dev/public - browser just throws that there is no /dev site.
I have root access, server is Debian 8 with apache 2.4.10. What can i do?

Answer 1

The simple issue us that you are trying to use an absolute path with a rewrite rule inside a dynamic configuration file. It is clearly documented that in this case you need a relative path due to the nature of how those stupid dynamic configuration files work (.htaccess).
Take a look at the version using a relative path:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^lol$ /dev/public
A more intelligent way to handle this discrepancy is to use a pattern that will work in both case, in dynamic configuration files and in the real host configurations:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^/?lol$ /dev/public
But the best idea would be not to use such dynamic configuration files at all but the http servers host configuration instead. Those files are notoriously error prone, hard to debug and they really slow down the server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have control over the host configuration (read: really cheap hosting service providers) or if you have an application that relies on writing its own rewrite rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).
Here is the official documentation (which you definitely want to read), take a look at the section labelled "Per-directory Rewrites":
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html