Proper htaccess file

[TravG]

You see so many different articles out there about how to properly redirect all the things you need to in your htaccess file that I am hoping someone will share here "all in one place" what all the different code should be. I have a feeling my htaccess file may not be correct, and unfortunately many of my different websites have different htaccess files which have been built over the years.

So what exactly should your htaccess file look like if you have an ssl and you want to direct everything to the www version of your pages? I would like to force everything to go the https, www version of my pages and also make sure all the /index files are redirected to the non-index version.

Thanks!

[Upotter]

Depends on a website (for example, for some project you may need to disallow traffic from certain countries using 403)

[tufty]

To redirect your website from non-www to www, add the following lines in your website’s .htaccess file (change "yourdomain" to your domain):
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301]


To force the HTTPS connection on your website, add the following lines inside the website’s .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

If htaccess ever crashes your site, go in via FTP and edit it.

[TravG]

Thanks. How about making the index page "disappear"? Example, xx.www.abc.com/index.html goes to xx.www.abc.com And doing that for all the pages in the website.

[tufty]

I can't advise about the index page in case that has consequences as I am not technical. What I suggest below should work, but I am not the one to advise on best practice for using this method to redirect an index page. Maybe someone can comment on that specifically. But to redirect any other pages because URL structures change you would place this in htaccess, for example:

redirect 301 /privacypolicy.htm https://www.yourdomainhere/privacy-policy/

In that example, the "/PrivacyPolicy.htm" is where my privacy page was and what it was called and the "https://www.yourdomainhere.com/privacy-policy/" is where it is now. It is correct to leave out the domain part of the first URL and include it in the second one.

I have a very long list of redirects like that placed in my htaccess files as my websites were all non-wordpress .html pages that went wordpress, so I have lots of redirects from the original URL to its new equivalent.

[ddm]

# BEGIN EXPIRES
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 10 days"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType text/plain "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType application/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
</IfModule>
# END EXPIRES
Compress Content Using Mod Deflate
# COMPRESSION
# BEGIN DEFLATE COMPRESSION
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
# Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/vnd.ms-fontobject
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-truetype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-font-ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/opentype
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/otf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE font/ttf
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/svg+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE image/x-icon
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
</IfModule>
# END DEFLATE COMPRESSION
# END COMPRESSION
Gzip Compression
# BEGIN GZIP
# BEGIN GZIP COMPRESSION
<IfModule mod_gzip.c>
mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file .(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*
</IfModule>
# END GZIP COMPRESSION
# END GZIP
Caching
#CACHE CONTROL
# BEGIN Cache-Control Headers
<ifModule mod_headers.c>
<filesMatch ".(ico|jpe?g|png|gif|swf)$">
Header set Cache-Control "public"
</filesMatch>
<filesMatch ".(css)$">
Header set Cache-Control "public"
</filesMatch>
<filesMatch ".(js)$">
Header set Cache-Control "private"
</filesMatch>
<filesMatch ".(x?html?|php)$">
Header set Cache-Control "private, must-revalidate"
</filesMatch>
</ifModule>
# END Cache-Control Headers
#END CACHE CONTROL
Force Trailing Slash
# FORCE TRAILING SLASH
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /+[^.]+$
RewriteRule ^(.+[^/])$ %{REQUEST_URI}/ [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
# END FORCE TRAILING SLASH
Prevent Hotlinking
# PREVENT HOTLINKING
RewriteEngine On
#Replace ?yourdomainname.com/ with your website url
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+.)?yourdomainname.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
#Replace /images/nohotlink.jpg with your "hotlinking is not permitted" image url
RewriteRule .*.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /hotlinksnotpermitted.jpg [L]
# END PREVENT HOTLINKING


Redirect Website Visitors To A Mobile Site:
# REDIRECT MOBILE DEVICES
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/m/.*$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} "text/vnd.wap.wml|application/vnd.wap.xhtml+xml" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "acs|alav|alca|amoi|audi|aste|avan|benq|bird|blac| blaz|brew|cell|cldc|cmd-" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "dang|doco|eric|hipt|inno|ipaq|java|jigs|kddi|keji |leno|lg-c|lg-d|lg-g|lge-" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "maui|maxo|midp|mits|mmef|mobi|mot-|moto|mwbp|nec-|newt|noki|opwv" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "palm|pana|pant|pdxg|phil|play|pluc|port|prox|qtek |qwap|sage|sams|sany" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "sch-|sec-|send|seri|sgh-|shar|sie-|siem|smal|smar|sony|sph-|symb|t-mo" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "teli|tim-|tosh|tsm-|upg1|upsi|vk-v|voda|w3cs|wap-|wapa|wapi" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "wapp|wapr|webc|winw|winw|xda|xda-" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "up.browser|up.link|windowssce|iemobile|mini|m mp" [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "symbian|midp|wap|phone|pocket|mobile|pda|psp" [NC]
#------------- The line below excludes the iPad
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^.*iPad.*$
#-------------
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !macintosh [NC] #*SEE NOTE BELOW
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /m/ [L,R=302]
# END REDIRECT MOBILE DEVICES
Stop SPAM On WordPress Blog
# STOP SPAM ON WORDPRESS BLOG
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} POST
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} .wp-comments-post.php*
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !.*yourdomainname.* [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
RewriteRule (.*) ^http://%{REMOTE_ADDR}/$ [R=301,L]
</IfModule>
# END STOP SPAM ON WORDPRESS BLOG
Replace yourdomainname with your actual domain name URL


Redirect Feeds
# REDIRECT DIFFERENT FEEDS TO A SINGLE FORMAT
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
RedirectMatch 301 /feed/(atom|rdf|rss|rss2)/?$ http://yourdomainname.com/feed/
RedirectMatch 301 /comments/feed/(atom|rdf|rss|rss2)/?$ http://yourdomainname.com/comments/feed/
</IfModule>
# END REDIRECT DIFFERENT FEEDS TO A SINGLE FORMAT
Replace yourdomainname with your actual domain name URL


Configure Your Website For HTML5 Videos
# CONFIGURE YOUR WEBSITE FOR HTML5 VIDEOS
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/favicon.ico
AddType video/ogg .ogv
AddType video/ogg .ogg
AddType video/mp4 .mp4
AddType video/webm .webm
AddType application/x-shockwave-flash swf
# END CONFIGURE YOUR WEBSITE FOR HTML5 VIDEOS
Log PHP Errors Into An Error Log
# LOG PHP errors INTO ~/public_html/php_error.log
# display no errs to user
php_flag display_startup_errors off
php_flag display_errors off
php_flag html_errors off
# log to file
php_flag log_errors on
php_value error_log ~/public_html/php_error.log
# END LOG PHP errors INTO ~/public_html/php_error.log
Replace yourdomainname with your actual domain name URL and ~/public_html/php_error.log with the location of your log file


Run PHP Inside JavaScript Files
# RUN PHP INSIDE JAVASCRIPT FILES
AddType application/x-httpd-php .js
AddHandler x-httpd-php5 .js
<FilesMatch ".(js|php)$">
SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>
# RUN PHP INSIDE JAVASCRIPT FILES
Block User IPs
#BLOCKING USERS IP
order allow,deny
deny from 123.45.6.7
deny from 0.1.2.3
allow from all
#END BLOCKING USERS IP
Replace 123.45.6.7 and 0.1.2.3 with the actual IP addresses you want to block


Prevent Directory Listing Of Files
#PREVENT DIRECTORY LISTING
IndexIgnore *
#END PREVENT DIRECTORY LISTING
Custom Error Document
# ERROR DOCUMENT
ErrorDocument code /directory/filename.ext
ErrorDocument 404 /errors/lostandfound.html
# END ERROR DOCUMENT
Replace /directory/filename.ext with the error document you would like to use and /errors/lostandfound.html with the 404 error page you would like to use to replace the default error documents


Redirect Non WWW URL To WWW URL
# REDIRECT NON WWW URL TO WWW URL
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yourdomainname.com
RewriteRule (.*) https://www.yourdomainname.com/$1 [R=301,L]
# END REDIRECT NON WWW URL TO WWW URL
Replace yourdomainname in three places, /olddirectory/oldfile.html with the old file name and newfile.html with the new file name


Simple Redirect
# SIMPLE REDIRECT
Redirect /olddirectory/oldfile.html https://yourdomainname.com/newfile.html
# END SIMPLE REDIRECT
Replace /olddirectory/oldfile.html and https://yourdomainname.com/newfile.html


Redirect Website To Https
#Force SSL without www
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://yourdomain.tld/$1 [R,L]
#Force SSL with www
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.yourdomain.tld/$1 [R,L]