Questions[redirect](server)

I have a signup page on a subdomain like: https://signup.example.com

It should only be accessible via HTTPS but I'm worried people might somehow stumble upon it via HTTP and get a 404.

My html/server block in nginx looks like this:

html {
  server {
    listen 443;
    server_name signup.example.com;

    ssl                        on;
    ssl_certificate        /path/to/my/cert;
    ssl_certificate_key  /path/to/my/key;

    ssl_session_timeout 30m;

    location / {
      root /path/to/my/rails/app/public;
      index index.html;
        passenger_enabled on;
    }
  }
}

What can I add so that people who go to http://signup.example.com get redirected to https://signup.example.com ? (FYI I know there are Rails plugins that can force SSL but was hoping to avoid that)

This is a Canonical Question about Apache's mod_rewrite.

Changing a request URL or redirecting users to a different URL than the one they originally requested is done using mod_rewrite. This includes such things as:

• Changing HTTP to HTTPS (or the other way around)
• Changing a request to a page which no longer exist to a new replacement.
• Modifying a URL format (such as ?id=3433 to /id/3433 )
• Presenting a different page based on the browser, based on the referrer, based on anything possible under the moon and sun.
• Anything you want to mess around with URL

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mod_Rewrite Rules but Were Afraid to Ask!

How can I become an expert at writing mod_rewrite rules?

• What is the fundamental format and structure of mod_rewrite rules?
• What form/flavor of regular expressions do I need to have a solid grasp of?
• What are the most common mistakes/pitfalls when writing rewrite rules?
• What is a good method for testing and verifying mod_rewrite rules?
• Are there SEO or performance implications of mod_rewrite rules I should be aware of?
• Are there common situations where mod_rewrite might seem like the right tool for the job but isn't?
• What are some common examples?

A place to test your rules

The htaccess tester web site is a great place to play around with your rules and test them. It even shows the debug output so you can see what matched and what did not.

Other than for historical reasons, is there is reason to have “www” in a URL?

Should I create a permanent redirect from www.xyz.com to xyz.com, or from xyz.com to www.xyz.com? Which one would you suggest and why?

I have a dedicated server with Apache, on which I've set up some VirtualHosts. I've set up one to handle the www domain as well as the non-www domain.

My VH .conf file for the www:

<VirtualHost *>
  DocumentRoot /var/www/site
  ServerName www.example.com
  <Directory "/var/www/site">
    allow from all
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

With this .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.example.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://example.com/$1 [L,R=301]

Is there a simple way to redirect the www to the non-www version? Currently I'm sending both versions to the same DocumentRoot and using .htaccess but I'm sure I must be able to do it in the VirtualHost file.

I am running apache2 on Debian etch, with multiple virtual hosts.

I want to redirect so that http://git.example.com goes to http://git.example.com/git/

Should be really simple, but Google isn't quite cutting it. I've tried the Redirect and Rewrite stuff and they don't quite seem to do what I want ...