I have some rewrite rules in my httpd.conf file. Is there a way to get apache to check the rewrite rules only if the url is not valid? My rewrite rules are preceded by checks for the REQUEST_FILENAME being a valid file, and a valid folder. But the documentation mentions that the rewrite conditions are checked only AFTER it finds a match for the rewrite rule.
So, whenever there is a request for a URL, apache checks each rewrite rule for that URL. Almost all the pages have images, .js and .css files and a few more files with them. Apache checks those too, against the rewrite rules in the httpd.conf (I see this in the RewriteLog generated for each URL). This significantly slows down the site.
I am aware of the FallbackResource directive. I don't want to use it as of now, because it returns a http status code of 200 by default. I want to return the correct status code (usually a 301) whenever there is a request for a page that was not found by Apache (usually, the incorrect URL has a correct counterpart, hence the need to send a 301). Sending the correct http status code also benefits our seo efforts. If there is a way to send the correct http status code using the FallbackResource directive, I would be open to using that option.
I have tried googling for these issues, and didn't find an answer. I have tried with different RewriteCond (s) but, like the documentation says, each rewriterule is checked anyways.
Any pointers on this would be of much help.
It does appear that there'd be some readings to do for you but, I always use this as "bible" when it comes to rewrite rule and haven't ceased to failed me. Perhaps this would do the same for you.
http://corz.org/server/tricks/htaccess2.php
Why not use the following:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^.*$ /not-found.php [L]
I would put in a .htaccess file located in the root folder. That way you can easily customize it for each site.
Related
Ok, so I know this is a question that has been asked many times, however, I have not been able to find an answer to my particular case, so please do not shoot me down.
I have a website: http://gmcomputers.co.za.
I am redirecting this URL, using .htaccess file, to a subfolder to load the content:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$
RewriteRule (.*) /gmcomputers/ [L,DPI,R=301]
Which works perefectly, except when I go to http://gmcomputers.co.za I get http://gmcomputers.co.za/gmcomputers/.
So my question is, how do I modify the above code to remove the /gmcomputers/ from being appended?
Please note I copied the code above from a website as I am not at all experienced in redirect, etc and am still learning. Also, the reason I am using .htaccess to redirect is due to there being other websites in the root directory and I therefore cannot edit any config files for Apache.
Thanking you.
You contradict yourself in your question. On the one hand you write that you want to redirect and that this "works perfectly", but then you write that you do not want that result.
My guess is that you actually do not want to redirect at all, but that instead you want to internally rewrite your requests to point to that server side folder. While the URL visible in the browser's URL bar does not show that folder. Is that what you are trying to ask?
If so take a look at this example:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/gmcomputers
RewriteRule ^ /gmcomputers%{REQUEST_URI} [END]
You might want to add an actual redirection to direct clients actually using the folder name in their requests:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?gmcomputers/(.*)$ /$1 [R=301,END]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/gmcomputers
RewriteRule ^ /gmcomputers%{REQUEST_URI} [END]
Best is to implement such rules in the central http server's host configuration. If you do not have access to that you can instead use a distributed configuration file (typically called ".htaccess") located in the DOCUMENT_ROOT folder configured for the http host, if you enabled the consideration of such files in your host configuration . Though that comes with a number of disadvantages. Above implementation works likewise for both approaches.
I'm setting up a website for a user and it's become apparent that they have lots of subdomains which were previously directed to specific folders. I'd rather find some way that they can manage this themselves by creating the relevant directories rather than me keep adding virtual hosts or altering .htaccess rules each time they want to add/change them.
As such, I came up with the idea of using a catch-all vhost, and using .htaccess to direct the subdomain to the correct folder.
Now I know similar questions have been asked, but I'm trying to achieve this with a single ruleset, and without performing a full HTTP redirect.
Currently I have the below rules, but I'm getting a strange problem
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=www.example.co.uk [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.+)\.example\.co\.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /%1/$1 [L,END,QSA]
Basically the idea is to avoid .well-known so that LetsEncrypt can use the document root to get certs for any sub domain, avoid www. which should use the standard path, but then match and redirect any other subdomain.
Without END this predictably ends with a server error and an exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects message in the log. This at least seems to confirm it's matching and redirecting though.
However, when using the END keyword, as far as I understand it, the rewrite should only happen once; I'm seeing strange behaviour though.
For a specific path, it seems to work fine
GET /index.html HTTP/1.1
Host: journey.example.co.uk
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
... snip content from /journey/index.html ...
But if I don't give a path, it seems like it's processing the redirect twice.
GET / HTTP/1.1
Host: journey.example.co.uk
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
... snip ...
<p>The requested URL /journey/journey/index.html was not found on this server
... snip ...
Given the use of %1, which should be the first part of the hostname, $1, which should be either just a / or empty in this case, I don't see how it's ending up with journey twice in the rewritten path.
Think I might of managed to get this working myself by looking through the rewrite flags documentation for the 10th time and finding this.
nosubreq|NS Causes a rule to be skipped if the current request is an internal sub-request.
The further documentation talks about SSI which isn't relevant to my issue, but it does go on to mention the following:
Also, when mod_dir tries to find out information about possible directory default files (such as index.html files), this is an internal subrequest, and you often want to avoid rewrites on such subrequests
My understanding is that the request for / causes mod_dir to make a subrequest for index.html, which results in two requests, and two rewrites.
Adding the above flag to the rule seems to be working, at least in a few quick tests. As such the following rules seem to allow for redirecting any subdomain to the same-named directory under document root.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=www.example.co.uk [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(.+)\.example\.co\.uk [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /%1/$1 [END,NS]
I want to redirect all incoming requests to a subdirectory, but can't figure out how. I looked here but that did not work for me.
So, if someone visits www.example.com/test, I want it to redirect to: www.example.com/test/subdirectory, but the URL still needs to be www.example.com/test
I also need the parameters to work, for example www.example.com/test/index.php?action=home must redirect to www.example.com/test/subdirectory/index.php?action=home.
I hope someone can help me!
So in fact what you ask for is not a redirect.
A redirect means the web server will send a new url containing the subdirectory, the browser will then request this new url, and show it in the url bar of the browser.
What you want is to tranparently map an directory structure to a real directory structure which differs. This is what Apache can do easily with the Alias instruction. Mod-rewrite could also do that, with RewriteRules not containing the [R] tag, this would imply an internal rewrite, not a redirect HTTP response. A [QSA] tag would also tell mod-rewrite to keep the current query string parameters on the rewritten url. But Mod-rewrite is not always simple to understand, and your problem is simple enough for a basic Alias, which is almost always included in Apache (more often than mod-rewrite).
this should be ok:
Alias /test /test/subdirectory
Try adding the following to the .htaccess file in the root directory of your site.
Query string parameters are passed through by default.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
#if not an existing file or directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
# rewrite to subdirectory
RewriteRule ^(.*)(/[^/]+)?$ /$1/subdirectory/$2 [L,QSA]
(1) I have a site that serves up MP3 files:
http://domain/files/1234567890.mp3
(2) I have a php script that tracks file download counts:
http://domain/modules/download_counter.php?file=/files/1234567890.mp3
After download_counter.php records the download, it redirects to the original file:
Header("Location: $FQDN_url");
(3) I'd like all my public links to be presented as the direct file urls from (1). I'm trying to use Apache to redirect the requests to download_counter.php:
RewriteRule ^files/(.+\.mp3)$ /modules/download_counter.php?file=/files/$1 [L]
I'm currently stuck on (3), as it results in a redirect loop, since download_counter.php simply redirects the request back to the original file (rather than streaming the file contents).
I'm also motivated to use download_counter.php as is (without modifying it's redirect behaviour). This is because the script is part of a larger CMS module, and I'd like to avoid complicating my upgrade path.
Perhaps there is no solution to my problem (other than modifying the download_counter script). WDYT?
If this is not about the strongest protection ever (as I can see, it is not), then just have your script to redirect browser not to the file, but to the
http://domain/files/1234567890.mp3/redirected
Ensure your webserver will still serve such request correctly as a file download. If it will, then just add negative RewriteCond that will ensure, that redirection is done if and only if the link is not ending with /redirected
UPDATED ANSWER
i think you are into a lot of troubles because your pseudo url are actually real urls: they lead to the file. So you should change your pseudo url to something like domain.com/downloads/file.mp3 and then just check whether the requested file does not exist, so that the redirect does not loop.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^downloads/(.+\.mp3)$ /modules/download_counter.php?file=/files/$1 [L]
I first thought something that would use the referer would work:
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !download_conter\.php
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !=""
RewriteRule ^files/(.+\.mp3)$ /modules/download_counter.php?file=/files/$1 [L]
However, the browser does not cooperate. Let's say you click some link in file.html to something.mp3 and then are forwarded to download_counter.php. When the php script does the forward it sets as referer not download_counter.php but file.html.
The only way I see you could do this would be using an external rewriting program that would keep some state -- the first time the user requested the file it would save that information and make the rewrite, the second time it would know it had made the rewrite in the first place and would pass through the request unmodified. See the documentation of RewriteMap.
Put in http://domain/files/ this .htaccess file...
RewriteEngine On
RewriteOptions Inherit
RewriteRule ^(.*).(mp3)$ /modules/download_counter.php?file=$1.$2 [R,L]
This should do the trick...
I am betting on an obvious problem here I am not seeing.
Here's the important bits for those of you familiar with Mod-Rewrite
.htaccess file with mod-rewrite rules exists here:
http://www.thedomain.com/.htaccess
User goes to this URL:
http://www.thedomain.com/test/blog
Mod-Rewrite rules should actually tell the server to access this URL:
http://www.thedomain.com/index.php?page=blog
.htaccess:
Options FollowSymLinks
Options -MultiViews
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^test/([^/.]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
This combination of code/request does not work. If you're wondering about the code snippet ^test not being ^/test instead, it is because apparently this is a problem on GoDaddy, the code fails with the / after the ^ - this seems like it may be related to my problem, which I'll explain further... If I change the .htaccess code line:
RewriteRule ^test/([^/.]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
to
RewriteRule ^test([^/.]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
(just removing the / here: ^test/([^/.]+) )
The code works when the requested URL is changed to accomodate (remove the slash; http://www.thedomain.com/testblog) as the user views the proper index.php?page=blog server response. It seems to me I cannot use any slashes within the darn match side of the RewriteRule. What gives?
Update: If at all relevent, this .htaccess file and the relevant files to the question all exist in a subdirectory off of the GoDaddy server that is hosting this although the domain points to the subdirectory as the root. Not sure if this is relevant.
Update: This server (at the server root) is actually running wordpress with pretty URLs enabled and they work perfectly fine. I assume wordpress uses mod-rewrite to make crazy urls like thedomain.com/2008/11/15/the-article-title.html work...?
Thanks so much.
Is RewriteBase what you're looking for?
there is a nice test utility for windows here
http://www.helicontech.com/download-isapi_rewrite.htm
try changing your code to:
^/test/([^/]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
or without slashes
^test[^a-z]+([a-z]*)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
I was unable to find a solid method around this problem on GoDaddy; for whatever reason I could not have slashes within the URL that was attempting to be rewritten aside from the base (http://www.somedomain.com/testingthis would work but http://www.somedomain.com/testing/this died).
I ended up instead using the Wordpress .htaccess to send all non-existant file/directory requests back to my index.php. I then used the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] var with pathinfo() to parse the URL and then direct what content to load from the parsing. This works well, is fast, and is probably the same method Wordpress uses.
Thanks for the attemps!
If you're wondering about the code snippet ^test not being ^/test instead, it is because apparently this is a problem on GoDaddy, the code fails with the / after the ^ […]
That’s not odd but necessary:
Per-directory Rewrites
When using the rewrite engine in .htaccess files the per-directory prefix (which always is the same for a specific directory) is automatically removed for the pattern matching and automatically added after the substitution has been done.
And that per-directory prefix is for a .htaccess file in the document root (/.htaccess) the URL path root (/). Thus patterns with the ^ must be written without that per-directory prefix /.
On the same way the substitution is handled. After a rule is applied, the per-directory prefix is added to the substituion. So try this rule:
RewriteRule ^test/([^/.]+)$ index.php?page=$1 [L]
OK, first off, I think that the GoDaddy apache server simply has some of the options turned off. I think that if they don't have an AllowOverride FileInfo in their configuration, RewriteRule won't work so well, or at all.
Which means its surprising that the URL http://www.thedomain.com/testblog works at all, and gets re-written. So I guess I'm a little confused.
Here's an idea: Try creating a directory named test, and put the .htaccess file in there! It would look like this:
Options FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^/]+)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
OK, another idea: Use RewriteCond. Maybe you can check the request URI directly, like this:
Options FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/test/([^/]+)
RewriteRule . /index.php?page=%1 [L]
Last idea: maybe your browser sees the URL http://www.thedomain.com/test/blog and thinks it's a directory, and adds a slash? So the URL is sends is http://www.thedomain.com/test/blog/. In that case, the REGEX won't match unless you allow for a trailing slash:
RewriteRule ^test/([^/.]+)/?$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]
Whoops. Sorry for gushing - there's just some many things that can go wrong in an HTTP request that goes through rewriting, and as many ways to try and overcome the problems :-)