.htaccess and order of code?

How do I know that I placed the correct code in the right places in the .htaccess file?

Anyone able to assist me in checking my .htaccess file and seeing if it's correct?

Cheers

How do I know that I placed the correct code in the right places in the .htaccess file?
I believe the processing is done one module at a time. So for directives from different modules, the order usually does not matter. For example
ErrorDocument 404 /abc.html
Redirect 302 /def http://www.example.com/ghi
and
Redirect 302 /def http://www.example.com/ghi
ErrorDocument 404 /abc.html
do the same thing.

for rules within some modules it might make a difference
RedirectMatch 302 ^/abc http://www.example.com/ghi
RedirectMatch 302 ^/a http://www.example.com/jkl
will redirect /abc to /ghi and
RedirectMatch 302 ^/a http://www.example.com/jkl
RedirectMatch 302 ^/abc http://www.example.com/ghi
will redirect /abc to /jkl.

But it might not make a difference
ErrorDocument 404 /404.html
ErrorDocument 401 /401.html

Anyone able to assist me in checking my .htaccess file and seeing if it's correct?
Post it.

Attached is a copy of my .htaccess file that I currently use (domain shown as example.com)

There's nothing major wrong with it. There's nothing wrong (as far as i can see) with the order.

You only need one
RewriteEngine On

When processing should stop after a RewriteRule matches, the L flag should be used. For example where you are using F(orbidden) and G(one).

Cool,
I see you changed the IP.* to IP\., wasn't too sure of that format...

Let me test your version, for some reason only Opera obeyed the blocking of my own IP address for testing.

I must review your version of shorthand to my loooooooooong version and learn some more.

Thank you.

Let me test your version, for some reason only Opera obeyed the blocking of my own IP address for testing.
HTTP_USER_AGENT is not the user's IP address (REMOTE_ADDR is). You are probably blocking because of a version number, for example
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061208 Firefox/2.0.0 Opera 9.61
could be blocked by
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} 200.*

I must review your version of shorthand to my loooooooooong version and learn some more.
I combined

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} www.macedonia-tour-travel\.com [NC,OR]
# ....etc...
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} deepakbansal\.com
into
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} (www\.macedonia-tour-travel\.com|...etc...|deepakbansal\.com) [NC]
with regular expression alternation (http://www.regular-expressions.info/alternation.html).

I then combined
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} long regular expression [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [G]
and
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} long regular expression [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [G,L]
with the OR RewriteCond flag
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} long regular expression [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} long regular expression [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [G,L]

Wow you know your .htaccess, pretty neat!
I wanted to send bad-bots/spammers to my own 404 page but I think I need to set the AllowOverride or ask the host to change one of the Apache files to help.
I haven't figured out what IfModule mod_rewrite.c means yet.
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(<|>|'|%0A|%0D|%27|%3C|%3E|%00).* [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(HTTrack|clshttp|archiver|loader|email|nikto|miner|python).* [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^.*(winhttp|libwww\-perl|curl|wget|harvest|scan|grab|extract).* [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://domain.tld/errorpage.php?error=404 [G,L]
</IfModule>

I wanted to send bad-bots/spammers to my own 404 page but I think I need to set the AllowOverride or ask the host to change one of the Apache files to help.
Why (the AllowOverride part)? What problem are you having?

I haven't figured out what IfModule mod_rewrite.c means yet.
Directives inside an <IfModule> (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#ifmodule) will only be processed if the module (in this case mod_rewrite) is loaded (or if it's !module if the module is not loaded).

I can't seem to get the error404 page to show.
I only see the hosts error pages

I attempted the code I posted above but it doesn't work.

Are you using a free host? They might be forcing their pages so they can put ads on them.

No, it's paid hosting, no ads just this;
Gone
The requested resource
/
is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.
Apache/2.2.3 (CentOS) Server at www.example.com (http://www.example.com) Port 80

Oh i see. Try adding an ErrorDocument (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/core.html#errordocument)
ErrorDocument 410 /errorpage.php?error=404

Ok it's the correct code for the "gone" page.
Cool, thanks!
No, for some reason that doesn't work.

It works fine for me, what is your full .htaccess file?

You could use
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /errorpage.php?error=404 [L]
and send the Gone header with PHP's header().

It's the exact same one you posted back.
If I use: [F,L] I Get Apache 2 Test Page
If I use: [G,L] or [L] I Get this:

Gone
The requested resource
/
is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
I believe the request to /errorpage.php?error=404 matches the RewriteRule and causes a loop.

Try adding
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
to all [G,L] rules.

Yes that's it!, sometimes rewrites cause infinite loops, forgot to stop it with one of the REDIRECT_STATUS.
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200
RewriteRule .* - [G,L]

Thank you!
It works, glad you saw that one.

Cheers

Not using actual status code only the ^$