Clean URL support for drupal

to use clean url's do the following

1 - read what are clean urls.
   http://drupal.org/node/15365
   http://drupal.org/node/15958
   http://drupal.org/node/5224

2 - add the following into the httpd.conf file (if not added already)

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

#
# "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/drupal"
#
<Directory "/usr/local/apache2/htdocs/drupal">
   AllowOverride All
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>


3 - ensure that rewrite engine is on and rewrite base is correct in the file $DRUPAL_HOME/.htaccess

# Various rewrite rules
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
 RewriteEngine on
 # Modify the RewriteBase if you are using Drupal in a subdirectory and the
 # rewrite rules are not working properly:
 RewriteBase /drupal


4 - enable clean urls in the drupal installation.
   http://localhost/drupal/admin/settings