I truly hate this file... I just spent 6.5 hours trying to figure this out and with my ADHD dyslexia it's just impossible!!
I have a domain that I bought for SSL for (currently I Have to wait for the ssl for WWW to kick in but for now the domain without WWW works, for example:
https://tomas.com
The .htaccess I have in root is currently:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} tomas\.com [NC]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://tomas.com/$1 [R,L]
And the code above does in fact activate SSL which is good. The thing is, I have a few files in root domain but one of them called is:
hello.php (located at: "tomas.com/hello.php")
If I go to:
http://tomas.com/hello
I want it to display that file (and in address bar it should say: "http://tomas.com/hello").
Before the SSL I had this code below and it worked (but not anymore):
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/?(.*)$ $1.php
Any idea how the entire .htaccess is supposed to look like? :/
I'm also same time trying to FORCE it to NOT use www (so if they do it should be redirected to a non WWW url)
Thank you so much in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!
Before the SSL I had this code below and it worked (but not anymore):
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/?(.*)$ $1.php
Not sure how this "worked" before, it's not complete by itself and does more that simply append a .php extension. You need something to prevent a rewrite loop, since hello.php also matches the pattern ^([^/]*)/?(.*)$.
Try the following instead, after your HTTP to HTTPS redirect.
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/$1.php -f
RewriteRule (.*) $1.php [L]
This first checks that the file with a .php file extension exists before internally rewriting to it.
Alternatively, you could instead just enable MultiViews if you aren't doing any other URL rewriting. For example, at the top of your file:
Options +MultiViews
This uses mod_negotiation to basically enable extensionless URLs for everything!
Since we migrated to a new server, some of our pages are broken (404). Reason is we have 2 broken rewrite rules.
What's really strange is that they work if I change folder's name.
For example this work:
RewriteRule ^anything/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/$ page.php?var=$1 [L]
This doesn't:
RewriteRule ^myfolder/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/$ page.php?var=$1 [L]
I can't even find a trick to make 301 redirects, because my original "myfolder/" virtual folder never matches.
Any ideas what's going on? I was thinking it could be a rule override or something like that (as it's hosted on a multidom solution), but i don't have such rules in my main site at the root. It drives me crazy.
Thx!
In practice you probably want to do 2 things. Disable multiviews and also bypass rules if the request is a real directory.
Options -MultiViews #turn off automatic URI matching, can cause weirdness
RewriteEngine on
#stop here if the request is a real file or directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteRule ^myfolder/([a-zA-Z0-9-]+)/?$ /page.php?var=$1 [L]
Using htaccess Rewrite, I want my url http://*.phoneataxi.com/ (where * is a wildcard, excluding 'www') to show in the address bar as is but get information from http://*.phoneataxi.com/test.php?c=*.
I have tried so many different things but nothing is doing exactly what I need. Most examples are redirecting the subdomain to the '/test.php' file in the address bar which I don't want to do.
I'm trying not to have to create individial subdomains and subdomain folders within my webroot.
Ideas?
I use this htaccess file to make Apache act as a proxy for another host:
IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^ghost\.pileborg\.se$
RewriteRule (.*) http://vps.pileborg.se/ghost/$1 [P]
</IfModule>
It causes all access to http://ghost.pileborg.se/ to be "redirected" to http://vps.pileborg.se/ghost/.
UPDATE (2020)
Some of the answers regarding this topic is very old and no longer work as expected.
After searching for hours on something that actually works, this is what I came up with; edit as you see fit:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ([a-z0-9]+)\.
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [E=BASE:%1]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:BASE}/index.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %{ENV:BASE}/index.php [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/%{ENV:BASE}/index.html -f
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %{ENV:BASE}/index.html [L,NC,QSA]
Breakdown
Make sure that the rewrite module is installed and enabled on your host
first we turn the rewrite engine on and set the path-base
then isolate the subdomain - any letters/numbers before the first dot
set a variable in this runtime environment that contains the subdomain
check if the subdomain folder and index-file exists
if it does exist -then use that file as the request-handler (no redirect)
if it does not exist then the request carries on normally
Flags
The flags used here are explained here, but the ones used above are quite simple:
[L] Last rule, ignore the rest
[NC] No Case, no uppercase/lowercase restrictions
[QSA] I remember this as "Query String Attach" :D
I've tried every single example I could find, they all produce an internal server error. I have these rules set up (this works, no error):
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}/index.php !-f
RewriteRule ^((/?[^/]+)+)/?$ ?q=$1 [L]
So if it's not an existing file or an existing directory with an index.php we redirect. For instance, http://domain.com/foo/bar becomes http://domain.com/?q=foo/bar
Thing is, I want the trailing slash stripped. So take off the /? at the end of the rule. How do I make it so that http://domain.com/foo/bar/ becomes http://domain.com/foo/bar with a visible redirect first (fixing the client's URL), and only then the real, silent redirection to ?q=?
Everywhere I look I see this:
RewriteRule (.*)/$ $1 [R,L]
But it gives me a 500 error if I insert it before my rule.
If foo/bar exists as a real directory, then the server will be redirecting the client to foo/bar/ (with the trailing slash). It has to do that in order for relative URLs to work correctly on the client. If you put in a rule to rewrite that back to foo/bar with a redirect then there will be a loop. An easy way to test if that's happening is to specify a path that doesn't exist at all (I assume from your index.php detection that the directory tree actually exists). The nonexistent path won't trigger the built-in redirect.
If I setup a similar set of rules to yours (plus the suggested slash-removal rule) I can see the difference between a directory that exists and one that doesn't. The ones that don't work as expected, the ones that do cause Firefox to say This page isn't redirecting properly. IE8 says something similar. Perhaps the Apache setup you're using can detect it and turns it into the 500 error?
It looks like the simpler rewrite rule you mention at the end of your question should work. The problem is, the 500 error isn't really helpful in figuring out why it's not working. One way I've found useful in helping debug mod_rewrite errors is to enable it's logging. Add the following to your httpd.conf:
RewriteLog "/usr/local/var/apache/logs/rewrite.log"
RewriteLogLevel 3
Then try again, and look in the log to see what's going on. Once you're done, you can disable the log be setting the rewriteloglevel 0. See the mod_rewrite docs for details.
Try this rule in front of your current rule:
RewriteRule (.*)/$ /$1 [R,L]
Try these rules:
#prevent mod_dir from adding slash
DirectorySlash Off
#redirect /folder/ to /folder
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\s\S+/(\?\S+)?\s [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [R=301,L,QSA]
#internal redirect for directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /$1/ [L]
To newcomers: While trying to comprehensively describe my problem and phrase my questions I produced huge ammount of text. If you don't want to read the whole thing, my observations about (read "proof of") [L] flag not working the misconception, from which it all sprung, is located in Additional observations section. Why I misunderstood apparent behaviour is described in my Answer as well as solution to given problem.
Setup
I have following code in my .htaccess file:
# disallow directory indexing
Options -Indexes
# turn mod_rewrite on
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
# allow access to robots file
RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ robots.txt [NC,L]
# mangle core request handler address
RewriteRule ^core/(\?.+)?$ core/handleCoreRequest.php$1 [NC,L]
# mangle web file adresses (move them to application root folder)
# application root folder serves as application GUI address
RewriteRule ^$ web/index.html [L]
# allow access to images
RewriteRule ^(images/.+\.(ico|png|bmp|jpg|gif))$ web/$1 [NC,L]
# allow access to stylesheets
RewriteRule ^(css/.+\.css)$ web/$1 [NC,L]
# allow access to javascript
RewriteRule ^(js/.+\.js)$ web/$1 [NC,L]
# allow access to library scripts, styles and images
RewriteRule ^(lib/js/.+\.js)$ web/$1 [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(lib/css/.+\.css)$ web/$1 [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(lib/(.+/)?images/.+\.(ico|png|bmp|jpg|gif))$ web/$1 [NC,L]
# redirect all other requests to application address
# RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /foo/ [R]
My web application (and its .htaccess file) is located in foo subfolder of DOCUMENT_ROOT (accessed from browser as http://localhost/foo/). It has PHP core part located in foo/core and JavaScript GUI part located in foo/web. As can be seen from the code above, I want to allow access only to single core script that handles all requests from GUI and to 'safe' web files and redirect all other requests to base application address (last commented directive).
Problem
Behaviour
It works until I try the last part by uncommenting the last redirecting directive. If I comment some more lines, the appropriate page parts stop working, etc.
However, when I uncomment last line, which should be performed only when matching of all previous rules fails (at least that's what I understand), page goes into redirection cycle (Firefox throws error page with something like "This page isn't redirecting properly"), because it's redirecting to http://localhost/foo/ again and again and again, forever.
Questions
What I don't understand is this processing of this rule:
RewriteRule ^$ web/index.html [L],
specifically the [L] flag. The flag apparently doesn't work for me. When the last line is commented, it correctly redirects, but when I uncomment it, it is always processed, even though rewriting should stop on [L] flag. Anyone got any ideas?
Also, on a sidenote, I'd be thrilled to know why my following attempt at fixing it doesn't work either:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^core/(\?.+)?$ core/handleCoreRequest.php$1 [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ web/$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ /foo/ [L]
This actually doesn't work at all. Even if I remove the last line, it still doesn't redirect anything correctly. How does the redirecting work in the first example, if it doesn't work in the second?
It would also be of great benefit to me, if anybody knew any way to actually debug these directives. I spend hours on this without even the slightest clue what could possibly be wrong.
Additional observations
After trying the advice given by bbadour (not that I haven't tried it before, but now that I had a second opinion, I gave it another shot) and it didn't work, I've come up with the following observation. By rewriting last line to this:
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /foo/?uri=$1 [R,L]
or this
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /foo/?uri=%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]
and using Firebug's Net panel, I found out more evidence, that the [L] flag is clearly not working as expected in the previously mentioned RewriteRule ^$ web/index.html [L] rule (let's call it THE RULE from now on). In first case I get [...]uri=web/index.html, in second case [...]uri=/foo/web/index.html. That means that THE RULE gets executed (rewrites ^$ to web/index.html), but the rewriting doesn't stop there. Any more ideas, please?
After hours of searching and testing, I finally found the real problem and solution. Hopefully this will help somebody else too, when they come across the same problem.
Cause of observed behavior
.htaccess file is processed after every redirect (even without [R] flag),
which means that after the RewriteRule ^$ web/index.html [L] is processed, mod_rewrite correctly stops rewriting, goes to the end of the file, redirects correctly to /foo/web/index.html, and then the server starts processing .htaccess file for the new location, which is the same file. Now only the last rewrite rule matches and redirects back to /foo/ (this time with [R], so the redirect can be observed in browser) ... and the .htaccess file is processed again, and again, and again...
Once more for clarity: Because only the hard redirects can be observed, it seems like the [L] flag is ignored, but it is not so. Instead, the .htaccess is processed two times redirecting back and forth between /foo/ and /foo/web/index.html.
Solution
Disallow direct access to subfolder
To virtually move subdirectory to application root directory, additional complex conditional rewrites must be used. Variable THE_REQUEST is useful for distinguishing between hard and soft redirects:
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /foo/web/
RewriteRule ^web/(.*) /foo/$1 [L,R]
For this rewrite rule to be matched, two conditions must apply. First, on second line, the "local URI" must start with web/ (which corresponds with absolute web URI /foo/web/). Second, on first line, the real request URI must start with /foo/web/ too. Together this means, that the rule only matches when the file inside the web/ subfolder is requested directly from the browser, in which case we want to do a hard redirect.
Redirect to allowed content from root to subfolder (soft)
RewriteCond $1 !^web/
RewriteCond $1 ^(.+\.(html|css|js|ico|png|bmp|jpg|gif))?$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ web/$1 [L,NC]
We want to redirect to allowed content only if we haven't done it already, hence the first condition. Second condition specifies mask for allowed content. Anything matching this mask will be softly redirected, possibly returning 404 error if the content doesn't exist.
Hide all content not in subfolder or not allowed
RewriteRule !^web/ /foo/ [L,R]
This will do a hard redirect to application root for all URIs not beginning with web/ (and remember, only requests that can begin with web/ at this point are internal redirects for allowed content.
Real example
My code shown in my "question" after using solution tips mentioned above gradually transformed into the following:
# disallow directory indexing
Options -Indexes
# turn mod_rewrite on
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
# allow access to robots file
RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ - [NC,L]
# mangle core request handler address
# disallow direct access to core request handler
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} !^(GET|POST)\ /asm/core/handleCoreRequest.php
RewriteRule ^core/handleCoreRequest.php$ - [L]
# allow access to request handler under alias
RewriteRule ^core/$ core/handleCoreRequest.php [NC,QSA,L]
# mangle GUI files adressing (move to application root folder)
# disallow direct access to GUI subfolder
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^GET\ /foo/web/
RewriteRule ^web/(.*) /foo/$1 [L,R]
# allow access only to correct filetypes in appropriate locations
RewriteCond $1 ^$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(images/.+\.(ico|png|bmp|jpg|gif))$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(css/.+\.css)$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(js/.+\.js)$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(lib/js/.+\.js)$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(lib/css/.+\.css)$ [OR]
RewriteCond $1 ^(lib/(.+/)?images/.+\.(ico|png|bmp|jpg|gif))$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ web/$1 [L,NC]
# hide all files not in GUI subfolder that are not whitelisted above
RewriteRule !^web/ /foo/ [L,R]
What I don't like about this approach is that the application root folder must be hardcoded in .htaccess file (as far as I know), so the file must be generated on application install, not simply copied.
To debug, try simplifying your regex, and the url you ask for (a part of the full url you wanna match), and see if it's working, now step by step, add more bits to the regex adn the testing url, till you find where things are stopping to work properly.
Try using:
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /foo/ [R,L]
If it still loops, put a RewriteCond in front of it to skip the rule if it is already /foo/