Conflict between Alias, <Directory>, and RewriteRule hides local directory from Apache httpd?

[Hedley Finger <hedley.finger@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am trying to run the web app LedgerSMB on a standalone computer with localhost as the server. Apache httpd, and LedgerSMB Perl scripts, are installed as follows:

C:\Program_Files\Apache\
C:\Program_Files\LedgerSMB\

There are two configuration files in conf/, 

httpd.conf

ledgersmb-httpd.conf

When localhost is entered into the browser, httpd correctly returns the "It Works!" confirmation page.

When localhost/ledgersmb is entered, an Alias directive and Rewrite Rule are supposed to return C:\Program_Files\LedgerSMB\login.pl:

Alias  /ledgersmb  C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB/

<Directory C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB>

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^/ledgersmb/?$ /ledgersmb/login.pl [R]

...

</Directory>

Instead a 404 Not Found, "The requested URL /ledgersmb was not found on this server." message returns.  As one would expect, localhost/ledgersmb/login.conf also returns a 404.  In either case, the logs/error.log reports:

[Mon Jan 28 18:00:12 2013] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] File does not exist: C:/Program_Files/Apache/htdocs/ledgersmb

It looks as though

DocumentRoot "C:/Program_Files/Apache/htdocs"

is overriding 

Alias  /ledgersmb  C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB/

<Directory C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB>

RewriteRule ^/ledgersmb/?$ /ledgersmb/login.pl [R]

I am going nuts trying to solver this problem.  A search of the httpd user archives did not return a similar problem -- or I could not thinnk of the right search keywords Nor were the FAQs and documentation of any help.

Can anyone point out the obvious detail that is eluding me?  The directives in the two *.conf files is appended below, minus comment lines.

Regards,

Hedley

CONTENTS OF ledgersmb-httpd.conf

Alias  /ledgersmb  C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB/

<Directory C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB>

  RewriteEngine On

  RewriteRule ^/ledgersmb/?$ /ledgersmb/login.pl [R]

  RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

  AllowOverride All

  AddHandler cgi-script .pl

  Options ExecCGI Includes FollowSymlinks

  Order Deny,Allow

  Allow from 127.0.0.1

  Allow from localhost

  Deny from All

  <Files ~ "\.conf$">

    Order Deny,Allow

    Deny from All

  </Files>

</Directory>

<Directory C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB/users>

  Order Deny,Allow

  Deny from All

</Directory>

<Directory C:/Program_Files/LedgerSMB/MORE-DIRS-LIKE-THIS>

  ...

CONTENTS OF httpd.conf

ServerRoot "C:/Program_Files/Apache"

Listen 80

LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so

LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so

LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so

LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so

#LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so

#LoadModule authn_alias_module modules/mod_authn_alias.so

#LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so

#LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so

#LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so

LoadModule authn_default_module modules/mod_authn_default.so

LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so

#LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so

#LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so

LoadModule authz_default_module modules/mod_authz_default.so

LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so

LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so

#LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so

LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so

LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so

#LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so

#LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so

LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so

#LoadModule charset_lite_module modules/mod_charset_lite.so

#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so

#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so

#LoadModule dav_lock_module modules/mod_dav_lock.so

#LoadModule dbd_module modules/mod_dbd.so

#LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so

LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so

#LoadModule disk_cache_module modules/mod_disk_cache.so

#LoadModule dumpio_module modules/mod_dumpio.so

LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so

#LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so

#LoadModule ext_filter_module modules/mod_ext_filter.so

#LoadModule file_cache_module modules/mod_file_cache.so

#LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so

#LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so

#LoadModule ident_module modules/mod_ident.so

#LoadModule imagemap_module modules/mod_imagemap.so

LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so

#LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so

LoadModule isapi_module modules/mod_isapi.so

#LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so

#LoadModule logio_module modules/mod_logio.so

LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so

#LoadModule log_forensic_module modules/mod_log_forensic.so

#LoadModule mem_cache_module modules/mod_mem_cache.so

LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so

#LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so

LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so

#LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so

#LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so

#LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so

#LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so

#LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so

#LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so

#LoadModule proxy_scgi_module modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so

#LoadModule reqtimeout_module modules/mod_reqtimeout.so

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so

#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so

#LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so

#LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so

#LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so

#LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so

#LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so

#LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so

#LoadModule version_module modules/mod_version.so

#LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so

<IfModule !mpm_netware_module>

<IfModule !mpm_winnt_module>

##User daemon

##Group daemon

</IfModule>

</IfModule>

ServerAdmin hedley.finger@xxxxxxxxx

ServerName 127.0.0.1:80

DocumentRoot "C:/Program_Files/Apache/htdocs"

<Directory />

    Options FollowSymLinks

    AllowOverride None

    Order deny,allow

    Deny from all

</Directory>

<Directory "C:/Program_Files/Apache/htdocs">

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    AllowOverride None

    Order allow,deny

    Allow from all

</Directory>

<IfModule dir_module>

    DirectoryIndex index.html login.pl

</IfModule>

<FilesMatch "^\.ht">

    Order allow,deny

    Deny from all

    Satisfy All

</FilesMatch>

ErrorLog "logs/error.log"

LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>

    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" combined

    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>

      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\" %I %O" combinedio

    </IfModule>

    CustomLog "logs/access.log" common

</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>

    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "C:/Program_Files/Apache/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

<IfModule cgid_module>

</IfModule>

<Directory "C:/Program_Files/Apache/cgi-bin">

    AllowOverride None

    Options None

    Order allow,deny

    Allow from all

</Directory>

DefaultType text/plain

<IfModule mime_module>

    TypesConfig conf/mime.types

    AddType application/x-compress .Z

    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

</IfModule>

<IfModule ssl_module>

SSLRandomSeed startup builtin

SSLRandomSeed connect builtin

</IfModule> 

--

Hedley Finger

28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel: +61 3 9809 1229   Mobile (cell): +61 412 461 558
Email. "Hedley Finger" <hedley.finger@xxxxxxxxx>