Redirect any URL starting with some characters

Question

I want to redirect something like:

domain/start[optional]/xxx

to

domain/something/xxx

I've tried to add to .htaccess:

# Rewrite any start* route to something route
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI}
RewriteRule ^start[^/]*/(.*)$ /something/$1 [R=301, L]

but I'm getting an Internal Server Error. Any idea of what I'm doing wrong?

The Apache logs says:

RewriteCond: bad argument line '%{REQUEST_URI}'

your rewriterules seems correct, you probably get the error because you have to allow overrides in htaccess. in that case, see here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6995545/htaccess-rewriteengine-not-allowed-here — guido, Mar 13 '15 at 14:11

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 13 '15 at 14:15

1

Your rule has few syntax issues. Try this rule:

# Rewrite any start* route to something route
RewriteRule ^start[^/]*/(.*)$ /something/$1 [R=301,L,NC]

answered Mar 13 '15 at 14:15

anubhava

1

Great! You're always solving my regex issues :) – Manolo Mar 13 '15 at 14:16
Now, I'm not getting the server error any more, but doesn't redirect. Let me try some stuff before marking as answered. – Manolo Mar 13 '15 at 14:19
Is `start` a directory? If not then place this rule just below `RewriteEngine On` line – anubhava Mar 13 '15 at 14:21
In my own example, `something` is `startsomething`, so I'm getting infinite redirections. How could I avoid it? I mean, do the redirect just once. – Manolo Mar 13 '15 at 14:58
1

For that you can tweak regex to: **`RewriteRule ^start(?!something)[^/]*/(.*)$ /something/$1 [R=301,L,NC]`** – anubhava Mar 13 '15 at 15:00

1 Answers1