You can use mod_rewrite to always redirect browsers to the “correct” URL, such as Amongst other things, this ensures that only the correct URL shows up in search results. Many webpages can be accessed via several URLs - for example, and /mypage.html. To stop other sites linking to your images in their pages, you can use mod_rewrite to send back a “Forbidden” error if the referring URL isn’t on your own site. For example, you can map the nice-looking URL to the real URL at Then everyone can use the friendly URL instead of the real one. Creating “friendly” URLs that map to “ugly” URLs.Here are some common uses of mod_rewrite: Or you can check server variables such as the user agent (browser), and only rewrite a URL if the browser is, say, Safari running on an iPhone.

For example, you can insert values pulled from the requested URL into the new URL, letting you rewrite URLs dynamically. Mod_rewrite lets you create all sorts of rules for manipulating URLs. With mod_rewrite, you can serve up content at a different URL to the one requested by the browser.Ĭontrast this with HTTP redirects, which tell the browser to visit a different URL from the one requested.Īs you’ll see shortly, you can also use mod_rewrite to do HTTP redirects, as well as other things such as return HTTP error codes. The browser’s address bar still shows, but Apache sends back the content at :

The important thing here is that this rewriting happens inside the Apache server. However, with mod_rewrite you can send back the contents of a different URL, such as: Normally, Apache then sends back the contents of the page.html file to the visitor. For example, a visitor might type the following URL into their browser: Frequently this means taking the URL requested by a visitor and sending them content at a different URL. Mod_rewrite is an Apache module for manipulating (rewriting) URLs.

You’ll learn how to create a few basic mod_rewrite rules, and you’ll explore some useful real-world examples that you can use on your own website. In this tutorial you’ll find out what mod_rewrite is, and the kind of things you can use it for. However, once you understand a few basic concepts then you can use mod_rewrite to do some pretty clever things with your site. Mod_rewrite can be quite tricky for beginners to pick up due to its somewhat complicated syntax and processing mechanism. It’s very flexible and can do all sorts of useful things. Mod_rewrite is a marvellous feature of the Apache Web server.

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