URL rewriting : Apache configuration to prevent loading default folder index.html - apache

Question

With the exact same .htaccess file, my local LAMP server (via mamp pro) and the production server behave differently. I suppose there is a different configuration at stake, but which one?
On my local server, http://domain.com/section/item/ redirects correctly to http://domain.com/index.php?section=$1&item=$2
On my production server, http://domain.com/section/item/ gives access to http://domain.com/section/item/index.html
What can i do to make the production server behave like the development server?
Here is the htaccess file content in case it helps.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
#--------------------------------------------
# PRETTY URLS
#--------------------------------------------
# if the following conditions are met, SKIP the rewriteRules.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule . - [L]
# Externally redirect to add missing trailing slash
RewriteRule [^/]$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R,L]
# SIX PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5&title=$6 [NC,L,QSA]
# FIVE PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4&id=$5 [NC,L,QSA]
# FOUR PARAMS
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3&content=$4 [QSA,L]
# THREE PARAMS : projects/touch/texts/
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1&item=$2&menu=$3 [QSA,L]
# TWO PARAMS: downloads
RewriteRule ^downloads/([^/]+)/$ index.php?section=downloads&item=$1 [QSA,L]
# TWO PARAMS:
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([^/]+)/?$ index.php?section=$1&item=$2 [QSA,L]
# TAG URL : index.php?tag=url+encoded+keyword
RewriteRule ^tag/([\w-]+)/$ index.php?tag=$1 [NC,L,QSA]
# ONE PARAM
RewriteRule ^([\w-]+)/$ index.php?section=$1 [L,QSA]
#--------------------------------------------
# END PRETTY URLS
#--------------------------------------------
</IfModule>

Answer 1

Try making 2 changes.
Add this line on top of your .htaccess file:
DirectoryIndex index.php
Then change your 1st rule to this:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
EDIT: Also try this:
Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews

Answer 2

yes, both file directory structures are exactly the same
I don't know how exactly you've got everything setup, but it's possible that the order of modules being loaded is different between development and production (a long-shot), which could influence the order modules are being applied in the URL processing pipeline. It the order or something like mod_autoindex or mod_dir is different, thus causing a request for /section/item/ to get resolved to /section/item/index.html before mod_rewrite gets a chance to do anything. That means this condition becomes true:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule . - [L]
And none of your other rules get applied, and thus /section/item/index.html gets served.
As to how to fix something like this, I suppose you can try turning off directory index in your server config (by commenting it out, everywhere), or set it to something non-existent in the directories that they are getting served:
DirectoryIndex _index.php