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server side Includes

Server side includes can be used for various things, one usefull method for using server side includes is to include your common items that are on all pages of a site. This would be something like common nav bars or a top section of a web page that is always the same from page to page. The idea is by using server side includes you can change the 1 file that you include on all of your pages and update all pages at once instead of editing each one individually. Server side includes can also perform commands giving cgi like abilities but having the cgi embeded into your html code for a page. This sounds cool but can be a dangerous security risk if you don't really know what your doing. For info on configuring SSI I would go to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html and read the entire documentation on SSI.

to simply turn ssi on:
uncomment #AddType text/html .shtml
uncomment #AddHandler server-parsed .shtml

In the "### Section 2: 'Main' server configuration" change the Directory block to look like below example by adding "+Includes"

<Directory />
Options FollowSymLinks +Includes
AllowOverride None
</Directory>