Https to http with variant exceptions

Question

Our site is going to be switched to SSL soon but we're not ready for it. As such we are going to redirect all https URLs to http in htaccess. I've got that working but as an added complication we've got a few URLs that have to be exceptions to the redirect. These URLs are: somebody.dev.www.example.com example.com/top_deal example.com/watches

I have the redirect working like so: RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =https RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=302]

but can't get the exceptions to work. I've tried literally every solution online that I can find.

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '21 at 13:35

First, do you want it to be a temporary rewrite (=302) or should the browser save it as permanent und thus get 301? Just asking, both works, but if you want to go for temporary, you should read this

Excerpt: HTTP/1.1 (RFC 2616) added the new status codes 303 and 307

So in your case a 307 would probably be better.

If you want to have permanent rewrite instead, use [R=301] to make the browser cache the rewrite-target instead of rewriting each time.

Now to the WRONG solution (but there is a good reason I leave in there, see here) - DON'T use that !!!

#logic is: 1 OR (2 AND 3) --> NO, it isn't, see the link right above!
#1 being hostname: somebody.dev.www.example.com
#2 being hostname: example.com
#3 being REQUEST_URI = !^/(top_deal|watches)
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^somebody.dev.www.example.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/(top_deal|watches)$
RewriteRule .? - [END]
##[END] makes the rewrite-evaluation STOP, completely, not only for this turn!

#same rule as before, just changed 302 -> 307 (RFC 2616) and ^(.*)$ to .? cuz I like it better^^
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =https
RewriteRule .? http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=307]

Update

Here is, what really should be put into your config:

# Don't rewrite HOST 'somebody.dev.www.example.com'
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^somebody.dev.www.example.com$
RewriteRule ^ - [END]

# Don't rewrite HOST 'example.com', if URI 'top_deal' OR 'watches'
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(top_deal|watches)$
RewriteRule ^ - [END]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteRule ^ http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=307]

That should definitely do the job :)

If it doesn't, for some reason, search for your LogLevel and add the rewrite:traceX to that line. So if your LogLevel is error it should look like this:

LogLevel error rewrite:trace2

Then restart/reload your server and test again. Error.log will now show the results of the attempted rewrites. Use tail -f error_log|fgrep '[rewrite:' to find them. If they are unclear, let us know, maybe we can help :)

This did not work. I got 500 Internal Server Error... which is better than the nothing at all I've been getting for a day and a half now. — lola_the_coding_girl, Apr 06 '17 at 12:48
added some explanation, a correct answer and hopefully some help for further troubleshooting — Hello Fishy, Apr 06 '17 at 17:07

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 05 '17 at 22:03

0

You can use rule as your very first rule:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !=somebody.dev.www.example.com
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} !\s/+(?:top_deal|watches)/?[?\s] [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =https
RewriteRule ^ http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301,NE]

# rest of your rules go here

Make sure to clear your browser cache before testing.

answered Apr 05 '17 at 22:03

anubhava

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But what if there are other subdomains that are not `example.com` but also use the URIs `/watches` or `top_deal`? – Hello Fishy Apr 05 '17 at 22:06
I just wanted to do this in a single rule. If what you wrote is a possibility then will need to break it into 2 separate rules. – anubhava Apr 05 '17 at 22:15
This did not work. Went straight to https. Did not redirect at all. – lola_the_coding_girl Apr 06 '17 at 12:47
What is exact `http` URL you entered in browser that got redirected to `https`? Ddi you clear browser cache? – anubhava Apr 06 '17 at 14:10

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '17 at 13:49

What I finally did that ended up working was the following:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(.*).dev.www.example.com
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} ! top_deal(.*)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} ! watches(.*)
RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Forwarded-Proto} =https
RewriteRule .? http://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Https to http with variant exceptions

3 Answers3