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=$1 [L]
TL;DR
How can I get .htaccess to rewrite http://domain.com/images to http://domain.com/images/ (i.e. add a trailing slash to URLs without one)? The URLs can be deeper than one level, for example http://domain.com/images/page/1.
More info
Say I have a URL like this:
http://jamwaffles2/wallpapers
This will redirect to this in the URL bar, with the rewrite rule working fine:
http://jamwaffles2/wallpapers/?page=wallpapers
However
http://jamwaffles2/wallpapers/ (note trailing slash)
Rewrites fine to
http://jamwaffles2/index.php?page=wallpapers (not visible to user)
With a nice http://jamwaffles2/wallpapers/ in the address bar.
The issue here is that when a trailing slash isn't given to the URL, the URL in the address bar changes to a not-so-pretty one. Can someone offer a solution to this?
Here's my .htaccess:
# turn rewriting on
RewriteEngine on
RedirectMatch permanent ^/$ http://jamwaffles2/home
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/?$ /index.php?page=$1 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/?$ /index.php?page=$1&var1=$2 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/?$ /index.php?page=$1&var1=$2&var2=$3 [L,NC,QSA]
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/?$ /index.php?page=$1&var1=$2&var2=$3&var3=$4 [L,NC,QSA]
As a side note, there are more levels to the URL; the .htaccess should make that apparent (e.g. http://jamwaffles2/home/page/2).
EDIT
Curiously, this only happens on /wallpapers. If I type in http://jamwaffles2/home it works as expected, but won't work with http://jamwaffles2/wallpapers.
1) Try this directive: Options +FollowSymLinks -MultiViews -- depending on Apache config it can be the deal breaker.
2) Use this code (one of possible variants) to add trailing slash for NON-EXISTING resources ONLY:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/ [R=301,L]
It will redirect (301 Permanent Redirect) so URL will change in browser (e.g. example.com/hello => example.com/hello/).
If it still does not work (for whatever the reason may be) -- if you can edit Apache config files -- please enable rewrite debugging (RewriteLogLevel 9) and check the rewrite log to see why some URL failing correct rewrite. Every server can be configured differently, so the same rule may work a bit differently in your case.
I'm having problems understanding how htaccess redirects work:
Can I do a background redirect, so that the user sees [subdomain].mydomain.com/?p1=v1..., but the server delivers mydomain.com/?sid=[subdomain]&p1=v1... without actual redirection, only server side.
This is what I have so far, it doesn't work:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^./]+)\.localhost\.com/(.+) [NC]
RewriteRule (.+) localhost.com/index.php?supplier=$1&$2 [L]
I doesn't change anything.
Edit
I got this halfway working:
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^./]+)\.localhost\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule /(.+)$ http://localhost\.com/eshop/?supplier=%1 [QSA,P]
Now I get a nice forbidden warning, if I remove the P flag it'll redirect, so the URL shows http://localhost.com/eshop/?supplier=[subdomain]&p1=v1... like it should, but the user must still see http://[subdomain].localhost.com/eshop/?p1=v1..., now how the remove that forbidden part...
(Notice my website is actually in a folder under www, but the eshop part will go away).
EDIT 2
IT WORKS, so as clmarquart said I needed mod_proxy. On WAMP you have to enable it by clicking on the tray icon->Apache->Apache modules and I enabled proxy_module and proxy_http_module, whatever they are.
Use the "P" flag to force use of the internal proxy. The RewriteURL target must be a full URL when using the proxy module. Use "%1" to "%9" as the captured data from the RewriteCond expression, and "$1" to "$9" for the captured data from the RewriteRule expression.
The following should work better (not tested though)
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^./]+)\.localhost\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.+) http://localhost.com/index.php?supplier=%1&$1 [L,P]
To newcomers: While trying to comprehensively describe my problem and phrase my questions I produced huge ammount of text. If you don't want to read the whole thing, my observations about (read "proof of") [L] flag not working the misconception, from which it all sprung, is located in Additional observations section. Why I misunderstood apparent behaviour is described in my Answer as well as solution to given problem.
Setup
I have following code in my .htaccess file:
# disallow directory indexing
Options -Indexes
# turn mod_rewrite on
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
# allow access to robots file
RewriteRule ^robots.txt$ 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/
I'm trying to get www.example.com and www.example.com/index.html to go to index.html, but I want all other urls e.g. www.example.com/this/is/another/link to still show www.example.com/this/is/another/link but be processed by a generic script. I've tried
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^index\.html$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ mygenericscript.php [L]
but it wont work, can someone please help?
Instead of testing what %{REQUEST_URI} is, you can instead just test if the resource exists:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule .* mygenericscript.php
This prevents your static resources (images, stylesheets, etc.) from being redirected if they're handled through the same directory your .htaccess is in as well.
What's probably happening now is that you're seeing an internal server error, caused by an infinite internal redirection loop when you try to access anything that isn't / or /index.html. This is because .* matches every request, and after you rewrite to mygenericscript.php the first time, the rule set is reprocessed (because of how mod_rewrite works in the context that you're using it in).
The easiest to do this is to install a 404-handler which gets executed when the server does not find a file to display.
ErrorDocument 404 /mygenericscript.php
or
ErrorDocument 404 /cgi-bin/handler.cgi
or similar should do the trick.
It is not that RewriteRule's can not be used for this, it is just that they are tricky to set up and requires in depth knowledge on how apache handles requests. It is a bit of a black art.
It appears as if you're using PHP, and you can use auto_x_file (x is either append or prepend:
http://php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php