Rewrite URL Sub directory

Question

I want to redirect non-www URL to www. I have one main wordpress website example.com and an other website in a subdirectory `example.com/sub

The redirection from https://example.com to https://www.example.com works BUT The redirection from https://example.com/sub to https://www.example.com/sub does not.

Main HTaccess

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Sub htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /sub/
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on [OR]
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} ^443$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} https
RewriteRule .* - [E=WPR_SSL:-https]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Accept-Encoding} gzip
RewriteRule .* - [E=WPR_ENC:_gzip]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} GET
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Cookie} !(wordpress_logged_in_.+|wp-postpass_|wptouch_switch_toggle|comment_author_|comment_author_email_) [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^(/sub(/(.+/)?feed/?.+/?|/(?:.+/)?embed/|/(index\.php/)?wp\-json(/.*|$)))$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^(facebookexternalhit).* [NC]
RewriteCond "%{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/sub/wp-content/cache/wp-rocket/%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}/index%{ENV:WPR_SSL}%{ENV:WPR_WEBP}.html%{ENV:WPR_ENC}" -f
RewriteRule .* "/sub/wp-content/cache/wp-rocket/%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}/index%{ENV:WPR_SSL}%{ENV:WPR_WEBP}.html%{ENV:WPR_ENC}" [L]
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /sub/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /sub/index.php [L]
</IfModule>

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 12 '21 at 19:39

This is very similar to this question that was asked recently: .htaccess redirect entire site from non-www/http to www/https

When the problem is per-directory .htaccess files, you can prevent the rules in those files from running after some rules by using the [END] flag. From the documentation:

Using the [END] flag terminates not only the current round of rewrite processing (like [L]) but also prevents any subsequent rewrite processing from occurring in per-directory (htaccess) context.

So you should be able to use [END] in your rules to make them take precedence over other rules in the subdirectories:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,END]

But... this will make no difference. When used with a `R=3xx` (NB: 3xx status) flag it makes no difference whether you use `L` or `END` here. (The `END` flag does not change "precedence".) With the rules as written, the mod_rewrite directives in the subdirectory override the parent directives, so the non-www to www redirect in the root is never processed. [See my answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/69963437/369434) (Hhhmm, why was this "accepted"?!) — MrWhite, Nov 14 '21 at 16:33

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 14 '21 at 13:26

The non-www to www redirect in the root .htaccess file is not processed so the redirect never occurs.

mod_rewrite directives are not inherited (by default) so when you request https://example.com/sub/, the mod_rewrite directives in /sub/.htaccess completely override the parent directives (ie. the non-www to www redirect) and the parent directives are not even processed so the redirect does not occur. (In this instance, if the parent directives did get processed then your site would most certainly break anyway.)

You need to repeat the non-www to www redirect in the /sub/.htaccess file. However, you can't use exactly the same rule (using a backreference) in the subdirectory since you will lose the /sub directory from the redirect. You need to make use of the REQUEST_URI server variable instead.

For example, at the top of your /sub/.htaccess file:

# /sub/.htaccess

# Redirect non-www to www
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.example.com%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Note that the REQUEST_URI server variable includes the slash prefix, so the slash is omitted from the substitution string.

Rewrite URL Sub directory

2 Answers2