Is it possible to force apache server to read root htaccess before going into subdirectory? - apache

Question

I have a subdirectory in root (let's call it /sub) and .htaccess in root. If I call the following URL: mywebsite.com/sub, I get directly into subdirectory omitting .htaccess in root, so I wanted to ask whether it is possible to force server to read root .htaccess first before going to subdirectory (and make corresponding redirection if needed)?
Thanks in advance
EDIT: I have discovered that my redirection explicitly excluded directories which was unwanted (and seemed to be the root of my problem):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) http://redirectwebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
I removed the second line, but unfortunately I still get into my folder.
So to make it clear:
when I go to http://mywebsite.com/not-a-folder-in-root, I am redirected to the new site correctly
when I fo to http://mywebsite.com/a-folder-in-root, I don't get redirected and go instead to my subfolder's index.php
The latter is the behavior I want to eliminate.

Answer 1

It depends on what you need to do. First .htaccess files are read in the order in which they are found.
How directives are read
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 the htaccess file will always override the file in the root directory. However you can manipulate the Apache config file and specify directives in say a Location directive. You can specify certain rules and then it will take affect over .htaccess rule. See info below.
As discussed in the documentation on Configuration Sections, .htaccess
files can override the sections for the corresponding
directory, but will be overridden by other types of configuration
sections from the main configuration files. This fact can be used to
enforce certain configurations, even in the presence of a liberal
AllowOverride setting. For example, to prevent script execution while
allowing anything else to be set in .htaccess you can use:
<Directory "/www/htdocs">
AllowOverride All
</Directory>
<Location "/">
Options +IncludesNoExec -ExecCGI
</Location>
Otherwise if you can't do that change because you don't have access, you would have to do all the rules in the root .htaccess file that also pertains to the sub folder which you can do instead of putting an .htaccess in the sub folder.
Edit based on comment
#just use this for all requests
RewriteRule (.*) http://redirectwebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]
#Or you can do all non-existent folders and that sub folder too
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/sub [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule (.*) http://redirectwebsite.com/$1 [R=301,L]