Lately I seem to tell a lot of stories here :-) . Well I hope that's alright. Let me know in comments if it is to much "storytelling".So lately I am avidly using the open source version of OwnCloud. I absolutely value hat it is a very quick and flexible system. You can quickly manage your files and it installs on very many different platforms and hosting environments.When I recently did set up another OwnCloud instance on a shared hosting provider, I've observerd that you can style many things but the OwnCloud URLs look rather messy. They include your domain your OwnCloud path and then a rather messy index.php and then further path to the OwnCloud functions.So I basically googled: index.php-less URLs.https://doc.owncloud.org/server/9.0/admin_manual/configuration_server/index_php_less_urls.htmlThe steps seemed rather straigtht forward:

• set two parameters in config.php
• use the occ binary command to maintain your OwnCloud installation
• or wait for the next update (as I've not figured out how to use a shell or a real command on my shared host)

I've tried all this but it had no effect. So I realized I've made a rather stupid rookie mistake: I didn't read all the paragraphs, the prerequisites of the manual.The prerequisites in the above linked document detail:

• It's a bit cryptic but I read that your web server or as the pro's call it: your httpd http daemon needs to be: Apache.
• And: modules to rewrite URLs need to be installed and active. Such as: mod_rewrite and mod_env
• Then there is an interesting detailed sentence:  the way Apache interprets php code needs to be relying on the Apache module mod_php -> fpm or fastcgi won't work

So far I must admit I did not really think through the intricate systems that are your httpd, your php core interpreters and the various modules added.So I've read up on it. And I've learned that mod_php is not really the recommended method to use php with Apache nowadays.https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/213372509-Apache-handler-is-not-available-in-Plesk-The-handler-cannot-be-enabled-because-corresponding-Apache-module-turned-offAlso there are tangible benefits and my shared host does not even support mod_php :( . So no clean URLs for me for a while. But lots of interesting things about memory usage and speed when using fpm or other methods.https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4526242/what-is-the-difference-between-fastcgi-and-fpm