Removing the .php extension with mod_rewrite

Question

I want a mod_rewrite rule set, so I can refer to a page without the .php extension, but have that rewritten to include the .php extension. This will be running on a 1&1 server.

Are there any good references so I can learn more myself?

Answer 1

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule something something.php [L]

http://example.com/something will be handled as if it was a request for something.php

To redirect all requests that are not a physical file to the same name but with .php:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule (.*) $1.php [L]

Answer 2

The accepted answer above does not remove the .php extension from urls it just allows you to visit .php files without extension. To remove the .php extension completely from urls , you can use the following Rules in root/.htaccess :

RewriteEngine on

#1)externally redirect "/file.php" to "/file"   
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /([^.]+)\.php [NC]
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [NC,L,R]
#2)Internally map "/file" back to "/file.php"
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteRule ^(.*?)/?$ /$1.php [NC,L]

Answer 3

Probably what you really want is just a way to not have the suffix at all. The best way I've found of doing this is to use the Files directive in .htaccess or in apache configuration files:

<Files myscript>
   SetHandler cgi-script
</Files>

This avoids some of the downsides of rewrites, e.g., direct access of the .php file.

Answer 4

.htaccess file: add the following lines:

Options +MultiViews
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ $1.php [NC,L]

https://alexcican.com/post/how-to-remove-php-html-htm-extensions-with-htaccess/

Now you would have to check for the AllowOverride condition in apache2.log file: set options AllowOverRide All in your web root directory:

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks  
AllowOverride All  
Require all granted

If you try to access your webpage without the .php extension, you may run into the following error in your apache error.log file: /var/www/html/web/.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

To fix this: You don't have the mod_rewrite module installed, To install it: Run the following command: ln -s /etc/apache2/mods-available/rewrite.load /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/rewrite.load

.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

Again, after refreshing the webpage, you might get the folloowing error in error.log file:

[negotiation:error] [pid 4650] [client 127.0.0.1:46461] AH00687: Negotiation: discovered file(s) matching request: /var/www/html/web/test (None could be negotiated). (I was trying to access localhost/web/test.php using the url: localhost/web/test)

To fix it you would have to add the following lines in apache2.conf:

<IfModule mod_mime.c>
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php3
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php4
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
    AddType application/x-httpd-php-source .phps
</IfModule>

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/htaccess-addtype-application-x-httpd-php-php-htm-html-and-maybe-a-fix.7584/#post-2491687

Now, I can access the test.php file using just the filename: test

Answer 5

For some reason I wasn't able to get any other solution working properly. I put this in an .htaccess file at the root of my site. Hopefully this will work for you.

RewriteEngine on #only use this once per .htaccess
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}\.php -f 
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.php 

It's important to keep in mind that if your header or URL contains the .php extension it won't be removed. You'll need to remove the extension.

Use this...

header 'location: /login';

rather than this...

header 'location: /login.php';

Answer 6

This Option will make clean SEO friendly URL's. Removing.php extensions from the visible URL, and ensuring that URL's accessed without the .php will still display the .php file. I was unable to find another answer that achieved this on multiple threads.

Remember to enable mod rewrite. On Debian or Unbuntu linux the following will work

sudo a2enmod rewrite

and

sudo service apache2 restart

Modify the corresponding section of your apache2.conf file to the following.

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteRule (.*) $1.php [L]
        RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} /([^.]+)\.php [NC]
        RewriteRule ^ /%1 [NC,L,R]
</Directory>

If using .htaccess to re-write ensure that the apache2.conf at least has these options enabled.

<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
        RewriteEngine On
</Directory>

Finally on some Apache install you may need to also set AllowOveride All in a .conf file in /etc/apache2/sites-available or /etc/apache2/sites-enabled.
Rewriting from apache2.conf file as opposed to .htaccess is rumored to be faster.

Answer 7

To get http://example.com/test linking http://example.com/test.php use:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^\.]+)$ /folder/$1.php [NC,L] 

Answer 8

For directing a few single files it might be easier to avoid the RewriteEngine.

I've used this:

<Files $filename>
   SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</Files>

That's less powerful and flexible than rewrite but probably faster and seems like the way to go if you wish to just have a few specific files handled as PHP.

Answer 9

RewriteEngine On

# Redirect sites with no extension to .php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.php -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$
RewriteRule .* %{REQUEST_URI}.php

This is what I came up with. This is based off of the accepted answer and its comments.