How do I avoid overwriting the .htaccess file when I use the Compose command?

Question

On my new Drupal 9 website, I customized the .htaccess file and the robots.txt file

I don't want its files to be overwritten when updating with Composer.

I added the lines below in my composer.json file but the .htassess file is overwritten every time. What's wrong with my code ? Thank you

"extra": {
    "drupal-scaffold": {
        "locations": {
            "web-root": "./"
        },
        "file-mapping": {
            "[web-root]/.htaccess": false,
            "[web-root]/robots.txt": false
        }
    },
...

Answer 1

Both .htaccess and robots.txt are a part of Drupal core, they are called "Scaffold Files". When you do composer update it will download the repository version of these files.

You have to re-add your custom changes every time you do composer update. Fortunately there is an automated way to do this:

Option 1. Append your changes:

  "name": "my/project",
  ...
  "extra": {
    "drupal-scaffold": {
      "file-mapping": {
        "[web-root]/robots.txt": {
          "append": "assets/my-robots-additions.txt",
        }
      }
    }
  }

Option 2. Create patches:

  "name": "my/project",
  ...
  "scripts": {
    "post-drupal-scaffold-cmd": [
      "cd docroot && patch -p1 <../patches/htaccess-ssl.patch"
    ]
  }

Option 3. Exclude (not recommended):

The official example:

  "name": "my/project",
  ...
  "extra": {
    "drupal-scaffold": {
      "file-mapping": {
        "[web-root]/robots.txt": false
      }
    }
  }

The code, that you provided looks correct.

Make sure that you are using the https://github.com/drupal/core-composer-scaffold package and not the outdated https://github.com/drupal-composer/drupal-scaffold.

But this approach is not recommended, because you might miss important core changes/security fixes.

More details on Altering Scaffold Files.