Where is .htaccess on AWS EC2 EB - .htaccess

Question

I have an EC2 instance running Elastic Beanstalk. I would like to enable GZIP Compression, and I understand I need to modify my .htaccess file.
I have read that the .htaccess file is located in my root folder of the app install. However, I cannot seem to find it. (I am pretty novice and not sure where the root folder is).
I am able to ssh onto the server running Apache Tomcat 8 with a Java 8 app.
Question
Where is .htaccess located?
This is what I have in my root:
$ ls
bin cgroup etc lib local media opt root sbin srv tmp var
boot dev home lib64 lost+found mnt proc run selinux sys usr
UPDATE
I have a .ebextensions/tomcat-settings.config now that works. It enables GZip compression.
option_settings:
aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy:
GzipCompression: 'true'
ProxyServer: nginx
aws:elasticbeanstalk:environment:proxy:staticfiles:
/pub: public
This does not seem to compress .svg files though. So if possible, I would like to have the following, but not sure where to add it:
## EXPIRES CACHING ##
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/svg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 1 month"
</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##

Answer 1

you need to upload .htaccess file or make it in your ec2 instance on your root folder on that you upload your application, if you are using elastick beanstalk you need to add the .htaccess file to your .zip file on the root folder

Answer 2

How you configured the ec2 instance, by ssh or by the .ebextensions file?
if you configure the instance by ssh and you are using a elastic enviorment then the configuration will be erased when the instance is degraded or change, if you are using only one instance by ec2 the configuration keep working.
if you need to configure it by .ebextensions you need to create a folder named .ebextensions in your .zip file, inside this folder you need to create two files named enable_mod_deflate.conf and myapp.config.
The contents of enable_mod_deflate.conf:
# mod_deflate configuration
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# Restrict compression to these MIME types
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml+rss
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/png
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/gif
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/jpeg
# Level of compression (Highest 9 - Lowest 1)
DeflateCompressionLevel 9
# Netscape 4.x has some problems.
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4 gzip-only-text/html
# Netscape 4.06-4.08 have some more problems
BrowserMatch ^Mozilla/4\.0[678] no-gzip
# MSIE masquerades as Netscape, but it is fine
BrowserMatch \bMSI[E] !no-gzip !gzip-only-text/html
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
# Make sure proxies don't deliver the wrong content
Header append Vary User-Agent env=!dont-vary
</IfModule>
</IfModule>
The contents of myapp.config:
container_commands:
01_setup_apache:
command: "cp .ebextensions/enable_mod_deflate.conf /etc/httpd/conf.d/enable_mod_deflate.conf"
Then you need to restart the server.