apache2 - Move .htaccess content into vhost, for performance

Question

I was wondering if performance can be increased if I move .htaccess file content into a vhost file of apache2?

This is the content of my .htaccess

Options +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On

  RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} ^([^.]+.[^.]+)$ [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L]

  # we check if the .html version is here (caching)
  RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
  RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

  # no, so we redirect to our front web controller
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

If doing so is a good idea, where in the vhost declaration should I place above content?

Thanks!

Answer 1

If you have the possibility to edit vhost-configuration file(s) you should always do so. The .htaccess is getting interpreted with every single request which is made to your site while on the other hand the vhost.conf is only interpreted on httpd restart/reload.

You could set the Options in Directory-directive - e.g.:

<Directory /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/somedir>
Options +FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
</Directory>

<VirtualHost [...]>
[...]
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} ^([^.]+.[^.]+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%1/$1 [R=301,L]

# we check if the .html version is here (caching)
RewriteRule ^$ index.html [QSA]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.html [QSA]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}%{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

# no, so we redirect to our front web controller
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</VirtualHost>

Also take a look at this wikipost on apache.org - especially the section When should I, and should I not use .htaccess files?