> Wrt caching, any valid htaccess files would probably want to be cached
> permanently until any files were htaccess updated (i.e. not re-read
> after 15s of not reading as might be the case here). You'd only want
> to stat the file, then only if it's changed, re-load the config. The
> directive would then be less a cache time directive, but a 'don't stat
> the file to see if it's changed within this time' directive.
> Not sure if that's what you meant or not.

Exactly, Marcus -- something like 'stat' at a defined time interval
could be the best solution.