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a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<title>Advanced Techniques with mod_rewrite - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</title>
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a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<body id="manual-page"><div id="page-header">
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<p class="menu"><a href="/mod/">Modules</a> | <a href="/mod/quickreference.html">Directives</a> | <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/FAQ">FAQ</a> | <a href="/glossary.html">Glossary</a> | <a href="/sitemap.html">Sitemap</a></p>
d229f940abfb2490dee17979e9a5ff31b7012eb5rbowen<p class="apache">Apache HTTP Server Version 2.5</p>
3f08db06526d6901aa08c110b5bc7dde6bc39905nd<img alt="" src="/images/feather.gif" /></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="up"><a href="./"><img title="&lt;-" alt="&lt;-" src="/images/left.gif" /></a></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div id="path">
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="../">Version 2.5</a> &gt; <a href="./">Rewrite</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Advanced Techniques with mod_rewrite</h1>
3f08db06526d6901aa08c110b5bc7dde6bc39905nd<div class="toplang">
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/en/rewrite/advanced.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a></p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
0cf3cdbaa1dad11cbf1ce32e48f1b4ec88cf779fnilgun
f086b4b402fa9a2fefc7dda85de2a3cc1cd0a654rjung<p>This document supplements the <code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite</a></code>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">reference documentation</a>. It provides
4b575a6b6704b516f22d65a3ad35696d7b9ba372rpluema few advanced techniques using mod_rewrite.</p>
4b575a6b6704b516f22d65a3ad35696d7b9ba372rpluem
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="warning">Note that many of these examples won't work unchanged in your
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndparticular server configuration, so it's important that you understand
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndthem, rather than merely cutting and pasting the examples into your
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndconfiguration.</div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#sharding">URL-based sharding across multiple backends</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#on-the-fly-content">On-the-fly Content-Regeneration</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#load-balancing">Load Balancing</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#structuredhomedirs">Structured Userdirs</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#redirectanchors">Redirecting Anchors</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#time-dependent">Time-Dependent Rewriting</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<li><img alt="" src="/images/down.gif" /> <a href="#setenvvars">Set Environment Variables Based On URL Parts</a></li>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</ul><h3>See also</h3><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">Module documentation</a></li><li><a href="intro.html">mod_rewrite introduction</a></li><li><a href="remapping.html">Redirection and remapping</a></li><li><a href="access.html">Controlling access</a></li><li><a href="vhosts.html">Virtual hosts</a></li><li><a href="proxy.html">Proxying</a></li><li><a href="rewritemap.html">Using RewriteMap</a></li><li><a href="avoid.html">When not to use mod_rewrite</a></li></ul><ul class="seealso"><li><a href="#comments_section">Comments</a></li></ul></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="section">
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<h2><a name="sharding" id="sharding">URL-based sharding across multiple backends</a></h2>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak <dl>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak <dt>Description:</dt>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak <dd>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak <p>A common technique for distributing the burden of
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd server load or storage space is called "sharding".
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd When using this method, a front-end server will use the
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd url to consistently "shard" users or objects to separate
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd backend servers.</p>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh </dd>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dt>Solution:</dt>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dd>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak <p>A mapping is maintained, from users to target servers, in
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak external map files. They look like:</p>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="example"><p><code>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nduser1 physical_host_of_user1<br />
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nduser2 physical_host_of_user2<br />
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd: :
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</code></p></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>We put this into a <code>map.users-to-hosts</code> file. The
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd aim is to map;</p>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak<div class="example"><p><code>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak/u/user1/anypath
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak</code></p></div>
5652dbe450e4fcfdf36d4cfb42d7f2345ded29a4maczniak
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>to</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="example"><p><code>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndhttp://physical_host_of_user1/u/user/anypath
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</code></p></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>thus every URL path need not be valid on every backend physical
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd host. The following ruleset does this for us with the help of the map
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd files assuming that server0 is a default server which will be used if
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd a user has no entry in the map:</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteEngine on
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndRewriteMap users-to-hosts txt:/path/to/map.users-to-hosts
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndRewriteRule ^/u/([^/]+)/?(.*) http://${users-to-hosts:$1|server0}/u/$1/$2</pre>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd </dd>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd </dl>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>See the <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritemap">RewriteMap</a></code>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd documentation for more discussion of the syntax of this directive.</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<div class="section">
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<h2><a name="on-the-fly-content" id="on-the-fly-content">On-the-fly Content-Regeneration</a></h2>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dl>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dt>Description:</dt>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dd>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>We wish to dynamically generate content, but store it
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd statically once it is generated. This rule will check for the
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd existence of the static file, and if it's not there, generate
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd it. The static files can be removed periodically, if desired (say,
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd via cron) and will be regenerated on demand.</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd </dd>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dt>Solution:</dt>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <dd>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd This is done via the following ruleset:
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd<pre class="prettyprint lang-config"># This example is valid in per-directory context only
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndRewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !-U
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301ndRewriteRule ^(.+)\.html$ /regenerate_page.cgi [PT,L]</pre>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>The <code>-U</code> operator determines whether the test string
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd (in this case, <code>REQUEST_URI</code>) is a valid URL. It does
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd this via a subrequest. In the event that this subrequest fails -
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd that is, the requested resource doesn't exist - this rule invokes
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd the CGI program <code>/regenerate_page.cgi</code>, which generates
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd the requested resource and saves it into the document directory, so
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd that the next time it is requested, a static copy can be served.</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd <p>In this way, documents that are infrequently updated can be served in
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd static form. if documents need to be refreshed, they can be deleted
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd from the document directory, and they will then be regenerated the
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd next time they are requested.</p>
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd </dd>
0cf3cdbaa1dad11cbf1ce32e48f1b4ec88cf779fnilgun </dl>
f086b4b402fa9a2fefc7dda85de2a3cc1cd0a654rjung
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
ba543b319188dc1887607f6d59feddc00e38eee2humbedooh<div class="section">
ba543b319188dc1887607f6d59feddc00e38eee2humbedooh<h2><a name="load-balancing" id="load-balancing">Load Balancing</a></h2>
ba543b319188dc1887607f6d59feddc00e38eee2humbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <dl>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <dt>Description:</dt>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <dd>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <p>We wish to randomly distribute load across several servers
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh using mod_rewrite.</p>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh </dd>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <dt>Solution:</dt>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <dd>
30471a4650391f57975f60bbb6e4a90be7b284bfhumbedooh <p>We'll use <code class="directive"><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritemap">RewriteMap</a></code> and a list of servers
5effc8b39fae5cd169d17f342bfc265705840014rbowen to accomplish this.</p>
d229f940abfb2490dee17979e9a5ff31b7012eb5rbowen
7fec19672a491661b2fe4b29f685bc7f4efa64d4nd<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteEngine on
7fec19672a491661b2fe4b29f685bc7f4efa64d4ndRewriteMap lb rnd:/path/to/serverlist.txt
7fec19672a491661b2fe4b29f685bc7f4efa64d4ndRewriteRule ^/(.*) http://${lb:servers}/$1 [P,L]</pre>
7fec19672a491661b2fe4b29f685bc7f4efa64d4nd
a78048ccbdb6256da15e6b0e7e95355e480c2301nd
<p><code>serverlist.txt</code> will contain a list of the servers:</p>
<div class="example"><p><code>
## serverlist.txt<br />
<br />
servers one.example.com|two.example.com|three.example.com<br />
</code></p></div>
<p>If you want one particular server to get more of the load than the
others, add it more times to the list.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Discussion</dt>
<dd>
<p>Apache comes with a load-balancing module -
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_proxy_balancer.html">mod_proxy_balancer</a></code> - which is far more flexible and
featureful than anything you can cobble together using mod_rewrite.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="structuredhomedirs" id="structuredhomedirs">Structured Userdirs</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>Description:</dt>
<dd>
<p>Some sites with thousands of users use a
structured homedir layout, <em>i.e.</em> each homedir is in a
subdirectory which begins (for instance) with the first
character of the username. So, <code>/~larry/anypath</code>
is <code>/home/<strong>l</strong>/larry/public_html/anypath</code>
while <code>/~waldo/anypath</code> is
<code>/home/<strong>w</strong>/waldo/public_html/anypath</code>.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Solution:</dt>
<dd>
<p>We use the following ruleset to expand the tilde URLs
into the above layout.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/~(<strong>([a-z])</strong>[a-z0-9]+)(.*) /home/<strong>$2</strong>/$1/public_html$3</pre>
</dd>
</dl>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="redirectanchors" id="redirectanchors">Redirecting Anchors</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>Description:</dt>
<dd>
<p>By default, redirecting to an HTML anchor doesn't work,
because mod_rewrite escapes the <code>#</code> character,
turning it into <code>%23</code>. This, in turn, breaks the
redirection.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Solution:</dt>
<dd>
<p>Use the <code>[NE]</code> flag on the
<code>RewriteRule</code>. NE stands for No Escape.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>Discussion:</dt>
<dd>This technique will of course also work with other
special characters that mod_rewrite, by default, URL-encodes.</dd>
</dl>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="time-dependent" id="time-dependent">Time-Dependent Rewriting</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>Description:</dt>
<dd>
<p>We wish to use mod_rewrite to serve different content based on
the time of day.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Solution:</dt>
<dd>
<p>There are a lot of variables named <code>TIME_xxx</code>
for rewrite conditions. In conjunction with the special
lexicographic comparison patterns <code>&lt;STRING</code>,
<code>&gt;STRING</code> and <code>=STRING</code> we can
do time-dependent redirects:</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{TIME_HOUR}%{TIME_MIN} &gt;0700
RewriteCond %{TIME_HOUR}%{TIME_MIN} &lt;1900
RewriteRule ^foo\.html$ foo.day.html [L]
RewriteRule ^foo\.html$ foo.night.html</pre>
<p>This provides the content of <code>foo.day.html</code>
under the URL <code>foo.html</code> from
<code>07:01-18:59</code> and at the remaining time the
contents of <code>foo.night.html</code>.</p>
<div class="warning"><code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_cache.html">mod_cache</a></code>, intermediate proxies
and browsers may each cache responses and cause the either page to be
shown outside of the time-window configured.
<code class="module"><a href="/mod/mod_expires.html">mod_expires</a></code> may be used to control this
effect. You are, of course, much better off simply serving the
content dynamically, and customizing it based on the time of day.</div>
</dd>
</dl>
</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="/images/up.gif" /></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2><a name="setenvvars" id="setenvvars">Set Environment Variables Based On URL Parts</a></h2>
<dl>
<dt>Description:</dt>
<dd>
<p>At time, we want to maintain some kind of status when we
perform a rewrite. For example, you want to make a note that
you've done that rewrite, so that you can check later to see if a
request can via that rewrite. One way to do this is by setting an
environment variable.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Solution:</dt>
<dd>
<p>Use the [E] flag to set an environment variable.</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/horse/(.*) /pony/$1 [E=<strong>rewritten:1</strong>]</pre>
<p>Later in your ruleset you might check for this environment
variable using a RewriteCond:</p>
<pre class="prettyprint lang-config">RewriteCond %{ENV:rewritten} =1</pre>
<p>Note that environment variables do not survive an external
redirect. You might consider using the [CO] flag to set a
cookie.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</div></div>
<div class="bottomlang">
<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="/en/rewrite/advanced.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a></p>
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