Question

Here is my .htaccess file

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

RewriteRule subpage\?sid /index.php [R=301,L,NC]

My request is http://example.com/subpage?sid

It keeps returning 404 Not Found, rather than redirecting to index.php

I have tried not escaping the ? and changing the request to http://example.com/subpage\?sid

I have tried loads of things to try get this working but am now stumped.

Answer 1

The QUERY_STRING is not part of the URI. From the documentation for RewriteRule:

Note: Query String

The Pattern will not be matched against the query string. Instead, you must use a RewriteCond with the %{QUERY_STRING} variable.

As the doc says, you’ll need to use a RewriteCond, something like:

RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (^|&)sid([&=]|$) [NC]
RewriteRule ^/?subpage /index.php [R=301,L,NC]

If %{QUERY_STRING} truly isn’t an option, try:

# Apache is supposed to use PCRE, but doesn't seem to like "\\s"
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} subpage?sid[^!-~] [NC]
RewriteRule ^/?subpage /index.php [R=301,L,NC]

Also, you almost never need RewriteBase as you’re using it (“RewriteBase /”). Comment the line and test it to be sure, but you’ll probably find you can delete it with no ill affect.