Does an .htaccess redirect to a different folder activate the second .htaccess within?

Solution 1:

Yes, it does. (Assuming .htaccess overrides have not been disabled for the subdirectory.)

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/web/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /web/$1

In fact, if the .htaccess file in the subdirectory contains mod_rewrite directives then you don't need the RewriteCond directive, since the mod_rewrite directives in the subdirectory will override the directives in the parent (by default) and thus prevent a rewrite loop.

Note that in the directive you posted you are missing an L flag, so processing will first continue through the rest of the current .htaccess file.

Minor point, this is strictly a "rewrite", not a "redirect". Although the Apache docs do refer to "internal redirects". A "redirect" is more commonly used to refer to external 3xx redirects.