Well, I unexpectedly caused the web server’s password protected directories ALL to go down the drain with just ONE mistake in ONE .htaccess file.  Not only that, but many symbolic links stopped working in apache, even though they still worked in a CLI.  I am such a dumbass, heh.  Here’s what I did:

This is an example of the .htaccess file I created:

# cat .htaccess

AuthUserFile /XXXXX/XXXXX/XXXXX/.xxxxx AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName “Sam’s Blog”
AuthType Basic

<Limit GET POST PUT>
  require user xxxxx yyyyy
</Limit>

The offending line is in Bold Blue, more specifically that one little old apostrophe.  😉

All fixed now, boys and girls. 😀