Question : .htaccess file

it seems to me that ever since i have put the .htaccess file in /usr/local/nagios/sbin

i haven't been able to access the cgi-bin dir from the webserver (apache)
i get the permissions error.

HOW do i delete the .htaccess file
the four lines in that .htaccess files are

AuthName "Nagios Access"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users
require valid-user

Answer : .htaccess file

What do you mean, how do you delete it? If you're on UNIX, just cd into the directory and type rm .htaccess.

What do you mean about an apache permissions error- permission getting to your pages or permission running apache?

That file appears to be requiring authentication via the file AuthUserFile /usr/local/nagios/etc/htpasswd.users. If you don't have that then you can't authenticate to see the pages.

If you're having problems running apache, then maybe the permissions on your .htaccess file are wrong. It needs to be readable by whatever user owns apache.