Remove public from URL in Laravel 9 using .htaccess on shared hosting/CPanel hosting

Question

I am trying to host a Laravel 9 application on a Cpanel shared host. However, the application keeps returning the below error even when I try to access https://example.com/public. Also below is my .htaccess file at the root; it used to work perfectly with Laravel 8 but is not working anymore. My problem is I want to access my application just using the domain without /public or /public.index.php (e.g., example.com).

Internal server error 500

.htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine on
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^public
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

Answer 1

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^public
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

You are missing the slash prefix on the CondPattern !^public, so this condition will always be successful and repeatedly rewrite the request, potentially causing a rewrite loop (ie. 500 error).

It should be like this instead:

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public($|/)
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 [L]

HOWEVER, you should also have another .htaccess file with mod_rewrite directives in the /public subdirectory that manages the routing through your Laravel app, and this should prevent a rewrite-loop.

Answer 2

How to remove public from url in laravel 9

• create a .htaccess file in root directory

• Add this code

  RewriteEngine On
  
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
  RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]
  
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1
  
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteRule ^ server.php
  

• create server.php in the root directory

• Add this code

  $uri = urldecode(
      parse_url($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], PHP_URL_PATH)
  );
  
  // This file allows us to emulate Apache's "mod_rewrite" functionality from the
  // built-in PHP web server. This provides a convenient way to test a Laravel
  // application without having installed a "real" web server software here.
  if ($uri !== '/' && file_exists(__DIR__.'/public'.$uri)) {
      return false;
  }
  
  require_once __DIR__.'/public/index.php';