The order directive precedes any allow/deny directives and determines the order in which a request should be processed. The order directive can take one of three forms:

• Order allow,deny
• Order deny,allow
• Order mutual-failure

Note: There are no spaces between the keywords following an order directive.

The first two directives are easy to remember: The first keyword is checked, and the default state falls to the second. So for the Order allow,deny statement, all allow directives are checked, and if none validate, the client is denied. The opposite is true for the Order deny,allow directive; the default state is to allow all requests unless a matching deny address/host is listed.

The Mutual-failure keyword has no initial state: To enter the gate a client must be allowed and must not be denied.