A collection of useful .htaccess snippets, all in one place.
NOTE: .htaccess files are for people that do not have rights to edit the main server configuration file. They are intrinsically slower and more complicated than using the main config. Please see the howto in the httpd documentation for further details.
Disclaimer: While dropping the snippet into an .htaccess file is most of the time sufficient, there are cases when certain modifications might be required. Use at your own risk.
IMPORTANT: Apache 2.4 introduces a few breaking changes, most notably in access control configuration. For more information, check the upgrading document as well as this issue.
What we are doing here is mostly collecting useful snippets from all over the interwebs (for example, a good chunk is from Apache Server Configs) into one place. While we’ve been trying to credit where due, things might be missing. If you believe anything here is your work and credits should be given, let us know, or just send a PR.
- Rewrite and Redirection
- Force www
- Force www in a Generic Way
- Force non-www
- Force non-www in a Generic Way
- Force HTTPS
- Force HTTPS Behind a Proxy
- Force Trailing Slash
- Remove Trailing Slash
- Redirect a Single Page
- Redirect Using RedirectMatch
- Alias a Single Directory
- Alias Paths to Script
- Redirect an Entire Site
- Alias "Clean" URLs
- Security
- Deny All Access
- Deny All Access Except Yours
- Allow All Access Except Spammers'
- Deny Access to Hidden Files and Directories
- Deny Access to Backup and Source Files
- Disable Directory Browsing
- Disable Image Hotlinking
- Disable Image Hotlinking for Specific Domains
- Password Protect a Directory
- Password Protect a File or Several Files
- Block Visitors by Referrer
- Prevent Framing the Site
- Performance
- Miscellaneous
Note: It is assumed that you have mod_rewrite installed and enabled.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s ^on(s)|
RewriteRule ^ http%1://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]This works for any domain. Source
It’s still open for debate whether www or non-www is the way to go, so if you happen to be a fan of bare domains, here you go:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s ^on(s)|off
RewriteCond http%1://%{HTTP_HOST} ^(https?://)(www\.)?(.+)$
RewriteRule ^ %1%3%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
# Note: It’s also recommended to enable HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS)
# on your HTTPS website to help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.
# See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Security/HTTP_strict_transport_security
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains"
</IfModule>Useful if you have a proxy in front of your server performing TLS termination.
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} !https
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /+[^\.]+$
RewriteRule ^(.+[^/])$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]This snippet will redirect paths ending in slashes to their non-slash-terminated counterparts (except for actual directories), e.g. http://www.example.com/blog/ to http://www.example.com/blog. This is important for SEO, since it’s recommended to have a canonical URL for every page.
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)/$
RewriteRule ^ %1 [R=301,L]Redirect 301 /oldpage.html http://www.example.com/newpage.html
Redirect 301 /oldpage2.html http://www.example.com/folder/RedirectMatch 301 /subdirectory(.*) http://www.newsite.com/newfolder/$1
RedirectMatch 301 ^/(.*).htm$ /$1.html
RedirectMatch 301 ^/200([0-9])/([^01])(.*)$ /$2$3
RedirectMatch 301 ^/category/(.*)$ /$1
RedirectMatch 301 ^/(.*)/htaccesselite-ultimate-htaccess-article.html(.*) /htaccess/htaccess.html
RedirectMatch 301 ^/(.*).html/1/(.*) /$1.html$2
RedirectMatch 301 ^/manual/(.*)$ http://www.php.net/manual/$1
RedirectMatch 301 ^/dreamweaver/(.*)$ /tools/$1
RedirectMatch 301 ^/z/(.*)$ http://static.askapache.com/$1RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^source-directory/(.*) /target-directory/$1 [R=301,L]FallbackResource /index.fcgiThis example has an index.fcgi file in some directory, and any requests within that directory that fail to resolve a filename/directory will be sent to the index.fcgi script. It’s good if you want baz.foo/some/cool/path to be handled by baz.foo/index.fcgi (which also supports requests to baz.foo) while maintaining baz.foo/css/style.css and the like. Get access to the original path from the PATH_INFO environment variable, as exposed to your scripting environment.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^$ index.fcgi/ [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.fcgi/$1 [QSA,L]This is a less efficient version of the FallbackResource directive (because using mod_rewrite is more complex than just handling the FallbackResource directive), but it’s also more flexible.
Redirect 301 / http://newsite.com/This way does it with links intact. That is www.oldsite.com/some/crazy/link.html will become www.newsite.com/some/crazy/link.html. This is extremely helpful when you are just “moving” a site to a new domain. Source
This snippet lets you use “clean” URLs -- those without a PHP extension, e.g. example.com/users instead of example.com/users.php.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]## Apache 2.2
Deny from all
## Apache 2.4
# Require all deniedBut wait, this will lock you out from your content as well! Thus introducing...
## Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
## Apache 2.4
# Require all denied
# Require ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is your IP. If you replace the last three digits with 0/12 for example, this will specify a range of IPs within the same network, thus saving you the trouble to list all allowed IPs separately. Source
Now of course there's a reversed version:
## Apache 2.2
Order deny,allow
Deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Deny from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxy
## Apache 2.4
# Require all granted
# Require not ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
# Require not ip xxx.xxx.xxx.xxyDeny Access to Hidden Files and Directories
Hidden files and directories (those whose names start with a dot .) should most, if not all, of the time be secured. For example: .htaccess, .htpasswd, .git, .hg...
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule "(^|/)\." - [F]Alternatively, you can just raise a “Not Found” error, giving the attacker no clue:
RedirectMatch 404 /\..*$These files may be left by some text/HTML editors (like Vi/Vim) and pose a great security danger if exposed to public.
<FilesMatch "(\.(bak|config|dist|fla|inc|ini|log|psd|sh|sql|swp)|~)$">
## Apache 2.2
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
Satisfy All
## Apache 2.4
# Require all denied
</FilesMatch>Options All -IndexesRewriteEngine on
# Remove the following line if you want to block blank referrer too
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https?://(.+\.)?example.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|png|gif|bmp)$ - [NC,F,L]
# If you want to display a “blocked” banner in place of the hotlinked image,
# replace the above rule with:
# RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|png|gif|bmp) http://example.com/blocked.png [R,L]Sometimes you want to disable image hotlinking from some bad guys only.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https?://(.+\.)?badsite\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^https?://(.+\.)?badsite2\.com [NC,OR]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|png|gif|bmp)$ - [NC,F,L]
# If you want to display a “blocked” banner in place of the hotlinked image,
# replace the above rule with:
# RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|png|gif|bmp) http://example.com/blocked.png [R,L]First you need to create a .htpasswd file somewhere in the system:
htpasswd -c /home/fellowship/.htpasswd boromirThen you can use it for authentication:
AuthType Basic
AuthName "One does not simply"
AuthUserFile /home/fellowship/.htpasswd
Require valid-userAuthName "One still does not simply"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /home/fellowship/.htpasswd
<Files "one-ring.o">
Require valid-user
</Files>
<FilesMatch ^((one|two|three)-rings?\.o)$>
Require valid-user
</FilesMatch>