Are .htaccess file contents cached

ps aux | egrep '(apache|httpd)' typically will show what apache is running as.

Usually you do not need to change the default user, "nobody" or "apache" are typically fine users. As long as its not "root" ;)

edit: more accurate command for catching apache binaries too

RFC doesn't specify any referrer-specific behavior in status 301 definition, nor 301-specific behavior in Referer header definition. Thus, I have to say that although this referrer-preserving behavior is logical, it is not defined in RFC and thus you can never be sure.

In short i don't belive you will be able to acomplish this with either redirect or mod_rewrite.

Your best bet would be to make a simple php code to redirect the user which will maintain the HTTP_REFERER.

Put a file named index.php on your domain root with the bellow content:

<?php
   header( 'Location: http://www.oursite.com/' ) ;
?>

Make a .htaccess and put it in your domain root directory with the bellow content:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php$
RewriteRule . index.php

The .htaccess file will take care that anything typed to reach your domain will hit the index.php and the index.php will take care for redirecting to the site it needs to hit.