I am considering moving from apache to nginx. However, there is one problem I don't really know how to handle best: On my server I have some 3rd party software, e.g. phpbb, phpmyadmin etc., and these applications use .htaccess files, which aren't by nginx.
Of course I could decide to change all htaccess rules and files to their nginx equivalent, however doing so also means that I need to manually check and update these rules when I update one of these applications.
Are there any other solutions to this problem?
I think you should configure every application manually.
This is what i have done, and this is imo the cleanest way which will produce the fastest sites.
Anyhow, Maybe this converter can help you: http://www.anilcetin.com/convert-apache-htaccess-to-nginx/
If any of this apps has too much dependencies to apache (which shouldn't be the case nowadays) consider updating or running apache behind nginx.