Question

This configuration is used to rewrite a URL to a sub-directory for versioning purposes, while also pushing the entire query string in a single GET variable called “request”, so as to strip out the question mark from the URL.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200
RewriteRule .* - [L]
RewriteRule (www/.*)$ 2.0/public/$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*+)$ 2.0/public/index.php?request=$1 [L]
DirectoryIndex index.php

I patched this together and by some miracle it works for my purposes, but I’m still not 100% sure why. I need all these lines for it to work correctly. Specifically I need help with line 2 and 3.

I understand that the [L] flag stops processing the rewrite of the current request, and then makes a new request, which needs to be processed again according to the rules (so that probably explains line 2). What is the purpose of line 3?

Answer 1

Let’s first number your lines, because it’s not clear what you’re referring to:

1. RewriteEngine On
2. RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200
3. RewriteRule .* - [L]
4. RewriteRule (www/.*)$ 2.0/public/$1 [L]
5. RewriteRule ^(.*+)$ 2.0/public/index.php?request=$1 [L]
6. DirectoryIndex index.php

Now, let’s try to explain what each line means:

1. Turn on URL rewriting.
2. If the requested file was found
3. … then just return it and stop.
4. Otherwise, if the URL starts with “www/”, then redirect to subfolder “2.0/public/” and append the entire request string.
5. Otherwise, if the URL has at least 1 character following the domain name, then redirect to “2.0/public/index.php?request=” and append the entire request string as a parameter.
6. Specifies default handler.