 I usually use the server config file for settings that I would like to apply to my applications (at least in the development environment), and constantly have to re-start the server.   I know that I cannot keep re-starting the server every time during production; my choice would have to be .htaccess files.   My question is this: how much performance issue does using htaccess files cause? I understand that it depends on how many folders the request has to traverse to obtain the required file; so here's an example:   If the request path is host/folder1/folder2/folder3/folder4/folder5/file_requested, and the htaccess is placed in the root folder, are we talking about a significantly, measurable performance issue, or something that can be ignored? I wouldn't want to restart the server every time I need changes to an application's configuration.  Thanks. 
htaccess performance issues vs restarting the server
htaccess;httpd.conf