If you do not have access to your Apache server’s virtual hosts files, use an.htaccess file to rewrite HTTP requests to HTTPS. Add the following lines to a file named.htaccess file in your domain’s root directory (create the file if it doesn’t exist). Modrewrite is a powerful Apache module that provides URL manipulation capability. The sophisticated feature allows webmasters to rewrite URLs and this is a common practice in many content. Apache 2.4 documentation: When not to use modrewrite. In this case you should not even have a DocumentRoot defined. This is the absolute simplest use of the modalias Redirect directive, and the official documentation tells you eaxactly how to do it. Available in Apache HTTP Server 2.4.8 and later. By default, modrewrite will ignore URLs that map to a directory on disk but lack a trailing slash, in the expectation that the moddir module will issue the client with a redirect to the canonical URL with a trailing slash. The syntax of modrewrite rules can be complicated; for example, if you want to redirect to HTTPS in certain subfolders that consist of other subfolders. If you are not sure whether modrewrite can be used, it is better to enable the redirect to HTTPS in the Virtual Host file.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Apache's mod_rewrite can be used to manipulate URLs. It is compiled into the base Apache Web Server.This module provides the ability to manipulate URLs prior to determining the appropriate file or handing off to a script. It can help you, if you want to offer different URLs for the same file. This is most commonly used when a visitor goes to a certain web address, but the server returns a different page.This module uses a rule-based rewriting engine to rewrite requested URLs on the fly. It supports an unlimited number of rules to provide a really flexible and powerful URL manipulation mechanism. It can hide sensitive information, such as query strings, from URL requests. This can potentially enhance website safety.
In this tutorial, we will explain how to enable mod_rewrite and demonstrate some common ways to use it in Apache on CentOS 7.
Requirements
- A server running CentOS 7
Install Apache
Before we begin with the mod_rewrite module setup, we need to install the Apache web server.
To install Apache, run the following command:
After installing Apache, start the httpd service and enable it to start automatically on boot.
We can do this using the following commands:
Next, we should allow access to the default Apache port 80 (HTTP) using firewalld.
We can do this by running the following command:
Now, reload the firewall service for the changes to take effect.
Enable mod_rewrite Module
The mod_rewrite module is enabled by default on CentOS 7. If you find it is not enabled on your server, you can enable it by editing 00-base.conf file located in /etc/httpd/conf.modules.d/ directory.
Add or uncomment the following line:
Save and close the file, then restart the httpd service:
Enable .htaccess File
Once the mod_rewrite module has been activated, you can set up your URL rewrites by creating an .htaccess file in your default document root directory.A .htaccess file allows us to modify our rewrite rules without accessing server configuration files. For this reason, .htaccess is critical to your web server.Before we begin, we need to allow Apache to read .htaccess files located under the /var/www/html directory.
You can do this by editing httpd.conf file:
Find the section <directory /var/www/html> and change AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All
Save and exit.
Now restart Apache to put the change into effect:
Configure Rewrite Module
In this section, we will explain basic mod_rewrite syntax and give some examples.
You can write RewriteRules using the following format:
RewriteRule: This directive specifies the name of the the mod_rewrite directive that you want to use.Pattern: This directive specifies a regular expression that matches the desired stringSubstitution: This directive specifies the path of the actual URL of the page with the information you want to display.Flags: A flag is a tag at the end of the Rewrite Rule directive that specifies optional parameters that can modify the rule.
Apache Mod_rewrite Http To Https Download
Let's discuss RewriteRules with some examples:
Redirect www to non-www
If you want to redirect users from www to a plain non-www domain, you will need to create .htaccess file in Apache document root directory.
Change directories to your Document root:
Create the .htaccess file:
Add the following content:
Save and exit the file.
We can use curl to test that the www domain redirects to the non-www domain:
You should see the following output:
Above output shows the non-www redirect location http://yourdomain.com/
Redirect non-www to www
If you want to redirect users from a plain non-www domain to a www domain, add the following content to your .htaccess file:
Add the following content:
Save and exit the file.
Now, use curl command to ensure that the non-www domain redirects to the www domain:
You should see the following output:
Above output shows the www redirect location http://www.yourdomain.com/
Redirect All Website Pages
If you want to redirect all pages from 'olddomain.com' to 'newdomain.com', edit the .htaccess file:
Add the following content:
Save and exit the file.
Now, use curl to test that the 'www.olddomain.com' domain redirects to the 'www.newdomain.com' domain:
Apache Mod_rewrite Http To Https Youtube
You should get a 301 Moved Permanently response that shows you the new domain redirect location.
Deny File Type Access
Apache 2.4 Rewrite
If you want to deny users to access specific file types such as: .pdf, .css, .gif, .png, or .bmp then edit your .htacces file:
Add the following content:
Save and exit the file.
Summary
Those are just a few examples of how mod_rewrite can be used. If you have questions about these examples please let us know below. You are also welcome to post in the ProfitBricks DevOps Community section of this site.