.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

I have this error when trying to browse php files locally

[Fri Apr 13 19:16:40 2012] [alert] [client 127.0.0.1] C:/AppServ/www/hr-website/.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration, referer: http://127.0.0.1/

what is the problem ?

Under Apache 2+ you can simply do as below (Using Linux Terminal):

sudo a2enmod rewrite && sudo service apache2 restart

or

sudo a2enmod rewrite && sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Check to make sure you have mod_rewrite enabled.

From: https://webdevdoor.com/php/mod_rewrite-windows-apache-url-rewriting

1. Find the httpd.conf file (usually you will find it in a folder called conf, config or something along those lines)
2. Inside the httpd.conf file uncomment the line LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so (remove the pound '#' sign from in front of the line)
3. Also find the line ClearModuleList is uncommented then find and make sure that the line AddModule mod_rewrite.c is not commented out.

If the LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so line is missing from the httpd.conf file entirely, just add it.

Sample command

To enable the module in a standard ubuntu do this:

a2enmod rewrite
systemctl restart apache2