.htaccess file delivering unexpected redirection

Question

My .htaccess code below is giving unexpected results. Please help me to fix this by referring expected result vs output result.

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
Redirect /main-page https://example.com/new-main-page
Redirect /main-page/sub-page1 https://example.com/new-main-page/new-sub-page1
</IfModule>

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

## Added as per WP-1252 ##
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-UA-Compatible "IE=edge"
</IfModule>

Expected Behavior:

Request 1: https://sample.com/main-page redirect to https://example.com/new-main-page

Request 2: https://sample.com/main-page/sub-page1 redirect to https://example.com/new-main-page/new-sub-page1

Request 3: https://sample.com/main-page/sub-page2 redirect to https://sample.com/page-not-found

Output Result:

Request 1: https://sample.com/main-page redirects to https://example.com/new-main-page (Expected Behavior)

Request 2: https://sample.com/main-page/sub-page1 redirects to https://example.com/new-main-page/new-sub-page1 (Expected Behavior)

Request 3: https://sample.com/main-page/sub-page2 redirects to https://example.com/new-main-page/sub-page2 (Unexpected Behavior. Why?)

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 31 '20 at 15:40

This is the way Redirect works as it catches everything that starts with the given URI string. So Redirect /main-page will redirect all URIs that start with /main-page. You should be using RewriteRule that allows use of regex for precise matching and moreover you're already using that in rest of your .htaccess.

You may use:

# BEGIN WordPress

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule ^main-page/?$ https://example.com/new-main-page [L,R=301,NC]
RewriteRule ^main-page/sub-page1/?$ https://example.com/new-main-page/new-sub-page1 [L,R=301,NC]

RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

## Added as per WP-1252 ##
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
Header set X-UA-Compatible "IE=edge"
</IfModule>

Make sure to clear your browser cache or use a new browser to avoid old browser cache.

.htaccess file delivering unexpected redirection

1 Answers1