Ancient Post Alert! This entry was published 19 years ago and contains technical information that may no longer be accurate. Proceed with caution.
WordPress Permalinks and the OS X Apache Install If you’ve installed WordPress on an OS X system and can’t figure out why your permalinks won’t function, take a peak in your httpd.conf file.
The default Apache install on OS X (1.3.33 for OS X 10.3.8 as of this writing) has AllowOverride set to None. It will be down around line 400, give or take. So even though the mod_rewrite module is installed and turned on by default, Apache will promptly tell any .htaccess file to take a long walk off a short pier. All those beautiful rewrite rules that WordPress politely puts in your .htaccess file for you will be for nought. Fix this by changing None to FileInfo (or All if you like to live life way out there on the edge).
Also, some hosting providers that have you set up in a shared environment (like mine, Media Temple) will require that the Options FollowSymlinks directive be included in your .htaccess file, or in a separate .htaccess file at your site root (the latter of which will spare you from having to include it in all of your .htaccess files).