https to http while keeping path - .htaccess

Question

I have here a little problem with a website and its WordPress blog.
For a short time, we had setup everything with https, until we were facing some issues and had to go back to HTTP.
Back then, I had a little collection of .htaccess files to deal with these kinds of problems, but I never actually tried my "non-www to www - ssl"
The intent was to add www and redirect https to http
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^/?$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/ [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s ^on(s)|
RewriteRule ^ http%1://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
Seemed pretty simple to me and I thought it should work.
I have two .htaccess files, one for http://www.example.com/ and one for http://www.example.com/blog both with the same content, as users are primarily coming from SE's via Blog.
The Problem is: If I load https://www.example.com/blog I get redirected to http://www.example.com/ instead of http://www.example.com/blog.
While writing the Question I thought I try this Question I had the idea to add this
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^/?$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s ^on(s)|
RewriteRule ^ http%1://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]
but then I get only redirected to http://www.example.com/{REQUEST_URI}
Could someone please tell me how I can keep the path on that redirect query?

Answer 1

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^/?$ http://%{SERVER_NAME}/{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
If you notice that in your other directive you have %{REQUEST_URI}. You are missing the % prefix above. This is required syntax in order to get the value of the REQUEST_URI server variable. But also note that the value of REQUEST_URI already includes a slash prefix, so the slash should be omitted from the substitution. ie. instead of /{REQUEST_URI} it should be %{REQUEST_URI}.
Also note that the RewriteRule pattern (^/?$) only matches the root of your site (or /blog subdirectory if this .htaccess file is in that subdirectory). You need to match everything. So, modify the above RewriteRule like this:
RewriteRule ^ http://www.example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]
I've also hardcoded the domain, otherwise, you'll end up with a double redirect when requesting the non-canonical (ie. non-www) host.