If you need to test if an Apache server is running the mod_rewrite module, don't waste your time building some elaborate system or doing it manually. Learn from my mistake and do it the simple way with this PHP code:

if(in_array('mod_rewrite',apache_get_modules())){
//Apache has Mod Rewrite
} else {
//Apache DOES NOT have Mod Rewrite
}

 

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Thanks Andrew! Too bad I didn't know about apache_get_modules() until after I had built something far more complex!