When configuring the server, it's important to understand the order in which the rules of each section are applied to requests. The order of merging is:

  1. <Directory> (except for regular expressions) and .htaccess are processed simultaneously, with the directives in .htaccess overriding <Directory>.

  2. <DirectoryMatch> and <Directory ~ > with regular expressions are processed next.

  3. <Files> and <FilesMatch> are processed simultaneously.

  4. <Location> and <LocationMatch> are processed simultaneously.

Apart from <Directory>, each group is processed in the order in which it appears in the configuration files. <Directory>s (group 1 above) are processed in order from the shortest directory component to the longest (e.g., first / and only then /home/www). If multiple <Directory>sections apply to the same directory, they are processed in the configuration file order.

Sections inside <VirtualHost>sections are applied as if you were running several independent servers. The directives inside one <VirtualHost>section do not interact with directives in other <VirtualHost>sections. They are applied only after processing any sections outside the virtual host definition. This allows virtual host configurations to override the main server configuration.

If there is a conflict, sections found later in the configuration file override those that come earlier.