Can I force .htaccess to refresh?

Question

We are moving a site from one CMS to another. The .htaccess file has been changed and it needs to be refreshed for the new site to work right. From what I understand the .htaccess file will only be refreshed if the browser cache is cleared? It is fine for those creating the site to clear our cache, but is there a way to get the users' browsers to get the new .htaccess file without the user clearing cache manually on his own initiative?

Answer 1

I had a rewriterule in my .htaccess file like,

 RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
 RewriteRule (.*) https://example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] 

and once I opened the site in localhost it never gave me a chance to hard refresh the page.

Solution: I added a random string like localhost/mywebsite/index.php?1234

Answer 2

If you're using RewriteRule, just use R instead of R=301. For other purposes, you'll have to clear your browser cache whenever you change a redirect.

from https://stackoverflow.com/a/7749784/1066234

Answer 3

As soon as you replace the .htaccess file it will get reloaded by Apache and instantly be used for all subsequent requests. You do not need to refresh any caches.