mod_rewrite Not Working in .htaccess - Solution

I faced a hair-tearing problem. mod_rewrite was loaded and yet it was not working in .htaccess files (and httpd.conf initially). Here is the solution along with how you can debug mod_rewrite problems.

Debugging procedure:
Add these two line to your httpd.conf immediately after RewriteEngine On.
RewriteLog "/var/log/httpd/rewrite_log"
RewriteLogLevel 9
After that I added the required RewriteRule etc.

The reason for testing directly in httpd.conf is to ensure that mod_rewrite is working in the first place. After some debugging I realized my expression was wrong. So now I fohtaccess und mod_rewrite was working in httpd.conf. However it still wasn't working in .files.

Solution:
I found AllowOverride was set to None in httpd.conf. I changed it to All (after all I am the only user of the machine). And it finally started working everywhere (after a restart).

Source:http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/mod_rewrite-not-working-in-htaccess-solution/