how do I force all traffic to https?

Question

I'm trying to use .htaccess to send all traffic to https. I'm using the example in this answer: Need to redirect all traffic to https

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

This isn't redirecting anything for me. I placed it in var/www but it doesn't seem to have any effect. What did I do wrong?

Put some garbage test at the top of .htaccess and see if you get 500 or not. — anubhava, Aug 15 '13 at 10:01
Stack Overflow is a site for programming and development questions. This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about programming or development. See [What topics can I ask about here](http://stackoverflow.com/help/on-topic) in the Help Center. Perhaps [Super User](http://superuser.com/) or [Unix & Linux Stack Exchange](http://unix.stackexchange.com/) would be a better place to ask. Also see [Where do I post questions about Dev Ops?](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/134306) — jww, Nov 05 '16 at 15:19

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 15 '13 at 16:10

Try [R,L] at the end of the rewrite rule:

RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

R redirects to the provided link, and L breaks the flow if condition is met. For reference you can see:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '13 at 05:21

3

If that's the only rules you have in your htaccess file and it's in your document root then you need to check a few things because the rules are fine.

Make sure mod_rewrite is loaded. There should be a line in your httpd.conf file that looks something like:
```
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
```
Make sure it's uncommented.
Make sure the directory that your htaccess file is in (should be your document root) is allowed to override server settings via htaccess. In your vhost or server config, there should be something along the lines of
```
<Directory "/var/www/">
    AllowOverride All

    ... (some other stuff)
</Directory>
```
Make sure the AllowOverride is at least FileInfo
Make sure your document root is actually where your htaccess file is in. Your vhost config should have a line like:
```
DocumentRoot /var/www/
```
Make sure the document root is for the right vhost. If you have separate vhosts for SSL and non-SSL, make sure the htaccess file is in the document root for the non-SSL vhost.

answered Aug 15 '13 at 05:21

Jon Lin

142,182
29
220
220

I'm new to server management and learning as I go. I'm running Ubuntu on a digital ocean virtual server. I'll go check all this now... – Paul Dessert Aug 15 '13 at 05:26
my `httpd.conf` is empty is ubuntu configured differently? – Paul Dessert Aug 15 '13 at 05:30
@relentless For Ubuntu, see [this answer](http://stackoverflow.com/a/11687212/851273) – Jon Lin Aug 15 '13 at 05:39
Thanks. I checked everything you pointed out. `AllowOverride` was set to none and I changed it to All, restarted Apache and I'm still having problems. – Paul Dessert Aug 15 '13 at 05:45

how do I force all traffic to https?

2 Answers2