How to Disable Auto-Generated .htaccess Files in Drupal 11.3

Goran Nikolovski delivers a concise, human-written tutorial addressing a long-standing frustration for non-Apache Drupal developers. With Drupal 11.3, it’s now possible to prevent automatic .htaccess file creation by setting $settings['auto_create_htaccess'] = FALSE in settings.php. This small change cleans up repos and suppresses unnecessary warnings in CI logs—particularly useful for Nginx and IIS users.

Nikolovski clearly explains the change's impact and caveats: if your web server already enforces directory security, you're safe; if not, consult the official filesystem security guide first. He also critiques the delay in implementing this fix, noting it was first requested in 2009, highlighting inefficiencies in Drupal core’s responsiveness to practical needs.

The post is practical, opinionated, and grounded in real-world deployment experience. It’s a high-value read for teams maintaining Drupal on non-Apache stacks, offering a simple yet overdue optimization.