AlexV's questions

I'm a developer, not a sysadmin but I have the task to maintain a file which is basically a list of domains to whitelist. This file is used in the Squid caching proxy. The content of the file looks like this:

.example.com
.google.com
.bing.com

The file is used like this:

acl whitelist dstdomain "/path/to/squid/whitelist.txt"

Now I'm trying to find the documentation on how this file is parsed and I can't find clear (official) instructions on the Web on how to fill this file.

It seems that a dot before the domain will whitelist the domain and all it's subdomains. I'm trying to find if there is other wildcard rules that we can apply (like google.* or something like that).

I want to understand how it works not just follow blindly how we used this in the past.

I'm trying to write the "ultimate" anti hot linking .htaccess...

You can find many examples/tutorials/generators on the net but many of them are wrong or incomplete (or even both).

These are the features I'm looking for:

• Must block hot linking for a list of file extensions when HTTP_REFERER is an foreign site.
• Must allow hot linking for the current domain (duh) without harcoding it in the .htaccess.
  • For the current domain it must work under http and https.
  • For the current domain it must work with www and without www.
• Must be able to add exceptions domains to these rules (like our friend Google) and these domains must work under http and https and with www or without www.

This is what I've achieved so far:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?google.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpe?g|png|zipx?)$ - [NC,F]

</IfModule>

My questions:

1. How to avoid to hardcode mydomain.com in the .htaccess? (It would be great to be able to deploy this .htaccess to all my domains without having to modify it for each of them.)
2. In my RewriteRule, gif|jpe?g|png|zipx? is equivalent to gif|jpg|jpeg|png|zip|zipx right? (Sorry still new at regular expressions.)
3. Do you see anything bad in my .htaccess that I'm unaware of?

For #1 I know it's somewhat possible. The closest I found is this snippet that removes the www from the URL without hardcoding the domain. Is there a way to use this method to my question #1?

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)
RewriteCond %{HTTPS}s/%1 ^(on(s)|offs)/(.+)
RewriteRule ^ http%2://%3%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

Update:

I'm aware of solutions that will serve a watermarked image instead of the regular one. But I'm not looking for this kind of solution. I want a universal solution (serve 403 errors) that will work for all kind of binary files (zip, exe, iso, jpg, png, gif...).

I've managed to create an .htaccess file that does what I wanted (see explanations and questions after the code block):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>

RewriteEngine On

#1 If the requested file is not url-mapper.php (to avoid .htaccess loop)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} (?<!url-mapper\.php)$

#2 If the requested URI does not end with an extension OR if the URI ends with .php*
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(.*) [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} \.php.*$ [NC]

#3 If the requested URI is not in an excluded location
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/seo-urls\/(excluded1|excluded2)(/.*)?$

#Then serve the URI via the mapper
RewriteRule .* /seo-urls/url-mapper.php?uri=%{REQUEST_URI} [L,QSA]

</IfModule>

This is what the .htaccess should do:

1. Rule#1 is checking that the file requested is not url-mapper.php (to avoid infinite redirect loops). This file will always be at the root of the domain.

2. Rule#2 the .htaccess must only catch URLs that don't end with an extension (www.example.com --> catch | www.example.com/catch-me --> catch | www.example.com/dont-catch.me --> don't catch) and URLs ending with .php\* files (.php, .php4, .php5, .php123, ...).

3. Rule#3 some directories (and childs) can be excluded from the .htaccess (in this case /seo-urls/excluded1 and /seo-urls/excluded2).

4. Finally the .htaccess feeds the mapper with a hidden GET parameter named uri containing the requested URI.

Even if I tested and everything works, I want to know if what I do is correct (and if it's the "best" way to do it). I've learned a lot with this "project" but I still consider myself a beginner with .htaccess and regular expressions so I want to triple check it there before putting it in production...

I'm trying to do another SEO system with PHP/.htaccess...

I need the following rules to apply:

1. Must catch all URLs that do not end with an extension (www.foo.com --> catch | www.foo.com/catch-me --> catch | www.foo.com/dont-catch.me --> don't catch).
2. Must catch all URLs that end with .php* (.php, .php4...) (that are the exceptions to rule #1).
3. All rules must only apply in some directories and not in their subdirectories (/ and /framework so far).
4. The htaccess must send the typed URL in a GET value so I can work with it in PHP.

Any mod-rewrite wizard can help me?

Edit:

OK after reading the posts suggested, I came up with this but I think its stuck in a loop... Anyone can help?

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
# 1
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !\.[^/]+$ [OR]
# 2
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.php.*$
# 4
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://localhost/seo-urls/seo-urls-mapper.php%3Frequested=$1?%{QUERY_STRING}
</IfModule>

Since I want to complete this during my Xmas holidays, I'm adding a bounty :) Thanks for your help and happy holidays!

Anyone can help me out with an .htaccess I'm trying to create?

I want to redirect foo.com to foo.ca.

Any URL from foo.com (with or without www and under http or https) will all be redirected to www.foo.ca.

Some examples:

• http://www.foo.com/ --> http://www.foo.ca/ (http + www)
• https://www.foo.com/ --> http://www.foo.ca/ (https + www)
• http://foo.com/bar/ --> http://www.foo.ca/ (http + some url)
• https://foo.com/bar/ --> http://www.foo.ca/ (https + some url)
• http://www.foo.com/bar/ --> http://www.foo.ca/ (http + www + some url)
• https://www.foo.com/bar --> http://www.foo.ca/ (https + www + some url)

Many thanks!

I need a .htaccess that will show this URL:

http://www.mysite.com/es/wp-content/plugins/mailpress/mp-includes/action.php?action=mail_link&add=123&lang=es

but will in fact serve this URL:

http://www.mysite.com/wp-content/plugins/mailpress/mp-includes/action.php?action=mail_link&add=123&lang=es

Note that action.php can receive other GET parameters in the URL. The htaccess must be able to foward them too. The only difference between these 2 URL is the "fake" root directory which will reflect the "lang" GET parameter.

Is it possible to do such things with a .htaccess (I'm pretty sure it's possible)? Anyone have pointers on how to do this??

Thanks!

Edit1: I forgot to say that the rewrite rule should be only valid for "action.php" that is in "/wp-content/plugins/mailpress/mp-includes/".

Edit2: I have this currently in my .htaccess:

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