By default, CakePHP takes full “control” of all URLs at the point where it is installed. Sometimes that behaviour is not desired. For example, my hoster defines an url like mydomain.com/stats where the statistics are available. If I install CakePHP in the root, this url no longer works resp. causes an error in CakePHP. The solution is to modify the .htaccess file in app/webroot. The original .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

And after the modification:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/stats/(.*)$
    RewriteRule ^.*$ - [L]
</IfModule>
# Begin CakePHP
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
</IfModule>

The added rule is rather simple: if the url starts with /stats stop the interpretation of the .htaccess file. That’s it.