Is it possible to have an apache mod_perl handler, which receives all incoming requests and decides based upon a set of rules if this request is something it wants to act upon, and if not, return control to apache which would serve the request as normal?
A use-case:
A legacy site which uses
DirectoryIndex for serving index.html
(or similar) and default handlers for
perl scripts etc, is being given a
freshened up url-scheme
(django/catalyst-ish). A dispatcher
will have a set of urls mapped to
controllers that are dispatched based
on the incoming url.
However, the tricky part is having
this dispatcher within the same
namespace on the same vhost as the old
site. The thought is to rewrite the
site piece by piece, as a "update all"
migration gives no chance in testing
site performance with the new system,
nor is it feasible due to the sheer
size of the site.
One of the many problems, is that the dispatcher now receives all URLs as expected, but DirectoryIndex and static content (which is mostly served by a different host, but not everything) is not served properly. The dispatcher returns an Apache::Const::DECLINED for non-matching urls, but Apache does not continue to serve the request as it normally would, but instead gives the default error page. Apache does not seem to try to look for /index.html etc.
How can this be solved? Do you need to use internal redirects? Change the handler stack in the dispatcher? Use some clever directives? All of the above? Not possible at all?
All suggestions are welcome!
I have done a similar thing but a while back, so I might be a little vague:
I think you need to have the standard file handler (I believe this is done using the set-handler directive) as well as the perl handler in the stack
You might need to use PerlTransHandler or a similar one to hook into the filename/url mapping phase and make sure the next handler inline will pick the right file up off the filesystem.
Maybe you will have success using a mod_rewrite configuration which only does rewrite URLs to your dispatcher if a requested file does not exist in the file system. That way your new application acts as an overlay to the old application and can be replaced in successive steps by just removing old parts of the application during deployment of new parts.
This can be accomblished by a combination of RewriteCond and RewriteRule. Your new application needs to sit in a private "namespace" (location) not otherwise used in the old application.
I am not a mod_perl expert but with eg mod_php it could work like this:
RewriteEngine on
# do not rewrite requests into the new application(s) / namespaces
RewriteRule ^new_app/ - [L]
# do not rewrite requests to existing file system objects
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
# do the actual rewrite here
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ new_app/dispatcher.php/$1
Related
here are some possible URL's i need to rewrite:
https://www.example.org/products/rubbers/1234-super-special-rubber
https://www.example.org/forum/2345-hello-world
https://www.example.org/3456-very-special-article
I want to remove all numbers and the - sticking to the number from the URL:
https://www.example.org/products/rubbers/super-special-rubber
https://www.example.org/forum/hello-world
https://www.example.org/very-special-article
What i tried so far (4 digits and -):
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*[/][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-.*$
RewriteRule ^.*[/][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]-.*$ /$1 [R=301,L]
The redirect works not as expected, it only takes me to:
https://www.example.org/
I also tried
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule (\d+)-([^/]*) $2 [R=301,L]
this should work, but it cuts '/products/rubbers' away :(
https://www.example.org/super-special-rubber
How do i tell the RewriteRule to cut out the numbers and the first - ?
Thank you :)
The $1 reference you use in your rule references the first captured group from your matching pattern, but you did not define any such group. That is why it is empty and you rewrite to what you call the "root URL".
Take a look at this instead:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)/\d{4}-(.+)$ /$1/$2 [R=301,END]
It is a good idea to start out with a 302 temporary redirection and only change that to a 301 permanent redirection later, once you are certain everything is correctly set up. That prevents caching issues while trying things out...
In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.
This implementation will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a distributed configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a distributed configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.
And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using distributed configuration files (".htaccess"). Those distributed configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg|zip|xml|json|html|txt)$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [L,QSA]
This works perfectly, but I want to except the one file I use as a GET endpoint.
I tried:
RewriteRule /assets/get_endpoint\.php - [L,QSA]
But that didn't work... I'm still getting rerouted to the "index.php".
AND the php file will definitely consist of GET parameters as well.
e.g.
www.example.com/assets/get_endpoint.php?date=2019-12-21&location=Paris
The .htaccess only consists of those two lines ( and the third ).
This should be really easy but I can't figure it out. Thanks so much for your help!
This probably is what you are looking for:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?assets/get_endpoint\.php$ - [END]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(png|jpg|jpeg|gif|svg|zip|xml|json|html|txt)$
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)$ /index.php [END]
I also made a few other optimizations once on it :-)
In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.
This implementation will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.
And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).
I am modifying the .htaccess file of a legacy PHP web application. I am not familiar with apache .htaccess syntax. I found this tutorial. What I am trying to do is that I am trying to redirect all the requests to a URL/ path if the request URL is not a specific URL/ path. For example, all the requests to the website will be redirected to localhost/my-custom-page unless the request URL is localhost/my-custom-page.
I know how to redirect mapping 1 to 1 as follows:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^my-old-url.html$ /my-new-url.html [R=301,L]
But, what I am trying to do is that redirecting all the requests to the specific page unless the request is to that page. Even the home page will be redirected to that page. How can I do that?
When I tried the following solution
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/my-new-url\.html
RewriteRule ^ /my-new-url.html [R=301]
I get the error
I want to check using OR condition as well. For example, if the path is not path-one or path-two, redirect all the requests to path-one.
Your question is a bit vague, due to your wording. But I assume this is what you are actually looking for:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/my-new-url\.html
RewriteRule ^ /my-new-url.html [R=301]
In case you receive an internal server error (http status 500) using the rule above then chances are that you operate a very old version of the apache http server. You will see a definite hint to an unsupported [END] flag in your http servers error log file in that case. You can either try to upgrade or use the older [L] flag, it probably will work the same in this situation, though that depends a bit on your setup.
It is a good idea to start out with a 302 temporary redirection and only change that to a 301 permanent redirection later, once you are certain everything is correctly set up. That prevents caching issues while trying things out...
This rule will work likewise in the http servers host configuration or inside a dynamic configuration file (".htaccess" file). Obviously the rewriting module needs to be loaded inside the http server and enabled in the http host. In case you use a dynamic configuration file you need to take care that it's interpretation is enabled at all in the host configuration and that it is located in the host's DOCUMENT_ROOT folder.
And a general remark: you should always prefer to place such rules in the http servers host configuration instead of using dynamic configuration files (".htaccess"). Those dynamic configuration files add complexity, are often a cause of unexpected behavior, hard to debug and they really slow down the http server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have access to the real http servers host configuration (read: really cheap service providers) or for applications insisting on writing their own rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/my-new-url\.html
RewriteRule ^ /my-new-url.html [R=301]
There are a few potential issues with this, particularly since you hint in a comment that you are perhaps using a front-controller to "route" the URL.
This redirect satisfies the conditions outlined in the question, but does assume that you have no other rewrites, have an essentially "static site" and are not linking to any static resources.
You are missing an L (last) flag, so processing will continue through the file and possibly be rewritten if you have later rewrites.
If you are rewriting the URL to a front-controller in order to route the URL (as you suggest in comments) then this redirect will break, as it will redirect away from the front-controller. You need to only redirect direct requests, ie. when the REDIRECT_STATUS environment variable is empty.
If you are linking to any static resources in the same file space then these will also be redirected. You need to create an exception for any static resources you are using, either by file extension (eg. (css|js|jpg|png)) or by location (eg. /static).
So, try the following instead:
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} ^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(js|css|jpg|png)$
RewriteRule !^my-custom-url$ /my-custom-url [R=302,L]
You don't need a separate condition to implement the exception for the URL you are redirecting to. It is more efficient to do this directly in the RewriteRule pattern.
The first condition ensures we are only redirecting direct requests and not rewritten requests to your front-controller.
The second condition avoids any static resources also being redirected. You could alternatively check the filesystem path if all your resources are stored under a common root. Or, as a last resort, implement filesystem checks (ie. RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f) if your static resources are too varied - but note that this is less efficient.
You will need to clear your browser cache before testing, since any earlier (erroneous) 301s are cached persistently by the browser.
I am trying to do a 301 redirect with lightspeed webserver htaccess with no luck.
I need to do a url to url redirect without any related parameters.
for example:
from: http://www.example.com/?cat=123
to: http://www.example.com/some_url
I have tried:
RewriteRule http://www.example.com/?cat=123 http://www.example.com/some_url/ [R=301,L,NC]
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks for adding your code to your question. Once more we see how important that is:
your issue is that a RewriteRule does not operate on URLs, but on paths. So you need something like that instead:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?$ /some_url/ [R=301,L,NC,QSD]
From your question it is not clear if you want to ignore any GET parameters or if you only want to redirect if certain parameters are set. So here is a variant that will only get applied if some parameter is actually set in the request:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (?:^|&)cat=123(?:&|$)
RewriteRule ^/?$ /some_url/ [R=301,L,NC,QSD]
Another thing that does not really get clear is if you want all URLs below http://www.example.com/ (so below the path /) to be rewritten, or only that exact URL. If you want to keep any potential further path component of a request and still rewrite (for example http://www.example.com/foo => http://www.example.com/some_url/foo), then you need to add a capture in your regular expression and reuse the captured path components:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/?(.*)$ /some_url/$1 [R=301,L,NC,QSD]
For either of this to work you need to have the interpretation of .htaccess style files enabled by means of the AllowOverride command. See the official documentation of the rewriting module for details. And you have to take care that that -htaccess style file is actually readable by the http server process and that it is located right inside the http hosts DOCUMENT_ROOT folder in the local file system.
And a general hint: you should always prefer to place such rules inside the http servers host configuration instead of using .htaccess style files. Those files are notoriously error prone, hard to debug and they really slow down the server. They are only provided as a last option for situations where you do not have control over the host configuration (read: really cheap hosting service providers) or if you have an application that relies on writing its own rewrite rules (which is an obvious security nightmare).
I'm wondering how urls like these are generated: http://www.example.com/Xj7hF
This is a practice I have seen used by many url shorteners as well as other websites that supposedly don't want to display data in the url in a parameter format.
Surely they can't be placing index files in the folder destination /Xj7hF etc with a redirect to the actual url, so I'm wondering how this is done.
Any help would be very appreciated!
(I'm running on a Linux server with Apache).
Different web development frameworks and web servers do it in different ways, but, the most common is probably using mod_rewrite with apache. Basically, the web server sends the request to a dynamic scripting language (eg. PHP) rewritten in such a way that the script doesn't need to know what the original request URI looked like and the client browser doesn't need to know what script actually processed the request.
For example, You will often see:
http://something.com/123/
This is a request for /123 which Apache may rewrite as a request to /my_script.php?id=123 based on how the user configured mod_rewrite.
(.htaccess example)
# if the request is for a file or directory that
# does not actually exist, serve index.php
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /index.php?url=$1
This is known as URL rewriting and is usually performed via proper configuration of the webserver. StackOverflow has several tags for this, so you should be able to find more information there.