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<manualpage metafile="index.xml.meta">
<parentdocument href="../"/>
<title>Apache mod_rewrite</title>
<summary>
<p><module>mod_rewrite</module> provides a way to modify incoming
URL requests, dynamically, based on <a href="intro.html#regex">regular
expression</a> rules. This allows you to map arbitrary URLs onto
your internal URL structure in any way you like.</p>
<p>It supports an unlimited number of rules and an
unlimited number of attached rule conditions for each rule to
provide a really flexible and powerful URL manipulation
mechanism. The URL manipulations can depend on various tests:
server variables, environment variables, HTTP
headers, time stamps, external database lookups, and various other
external programs or handlers, can be used to achieve granular URL
matching.</p>
<p>Rewrite rules can operate on the full URLs, including the path-info
and query string portions, and may be used in per-server context
(<code>httpd.conf</code>), per-virtualhost context (<directive
type="section" module="core">VirtualHost</directive> blocks), or
per-directory context (<code>.htaccess</code> files and <directive
type="section" module="core">Directory</directive> blocks). The
rewritten result can lead to further rules, internal
sub-processing, external request redirection, or proxy
passthrough, depending on what <a href="flags.html">flags</a> you
attach to the rules.</p>
<p>Since mod_rewrite is so powerful, it can indeed be rather
complex. This document supplements the <a
href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">reference documentation</a>, and
attempts to allay some of that complexity, and provide highly
annotated examples of common scenarios that you may handle with
mod_rewrite. But we also attempt to show you when you should not
use mod_rewrite, and use other standard Apache features instead,
thus avoiding this unnecessary complexity.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite reference
documentation</a></li>
<li><a href="intro.html">Introduction to regular expressions and mod_rewrite</a></li>
<li><a href="remapping.html">Using mod_rewrite for redirection and remapping of URLs</a></li>
<li><a href="access.html">Using mod_rewrite to control access</a></li>
<li><a href="vhosts.html">Dynamic virtual hosts with mod_rewrite</a></li>
<li><a href="proxy.html">Dynamic proxying with mod_rewrite</a></li>
<li><a href="rewritemap.html">Using RewriteMap</a></li>
<li><a href="advanced.html">Advanced techniques</a></li>
<li><a href="avoid.html">When <strong>NOT</strong> to use mod_rewrite</a></li>
<li><a href="flags.html">RewriteRule Flags</a></li>
<li><a href="tech.html">Technical details</a></li>
</ul>
</summary>
<seealso><a href="/mod/mod_rewrite.html">mod_rewrite reference
documentation</a></seealso>
<seealso><a href="/urlmapping.html">Mapping URLs to the Filesystem</a></seealso>
<seealso><a href="http://wiki.apache.org/httpd/Rewrite">mod_rewrite
wiki</a></seealso>
<seealso><a href="/glossary.html">Glossary</a></seealso>
</manualpage>