apache redirect from non www to www

Question

Using the rewrite engine is a pretty heavyweight way to solve this problem. Here is a simpler solution:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName example.com
    Redirect permanent / http://www.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName www.example.com
    # real server configuration
</VirtualHost>

And then you'll have another <VirtualHost> section with ServerName www.example.com for your real server configuration. Apache automatically preserves anything after the / when using the Redirect directive, which is a common misconception about why this method won't work (when in fact it does).

http://example.com/subdir/?lold=13666 => http://www.example.com/subdir/?lold=13666

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAlias example.com
    RedirectMatch permanent ^/(.*) http://www.example.com/$1
</VirtualHost>

To remove www from your URL website use this code in your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://%1$1 [R=301,L]

To force www in your website URL use this code on .htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^YourSite.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yourSite.com/$1 [R=301]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_fileNAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_fileNAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*[^./]+)$ /$1.html [R=301,L]

Where YourSite.com must be replaced with your URL.

    <VirtualHost *:80>
       DocumentRoot "what/ever/root/to/source"
       ServerName www.example.com

       <Directory "what/ever/root/to/source">
         Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews Includes ExecCGI
         AllowOverride All
         Order allow,deny
         allow from all
         <What Ever Rules You Need.>
      </Directory>

    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName example.com
      ServerAlias *.example.com
      Redirect permanent / http://www.example.com/
    </VirtualHost>

This is what happens with the code above. The first virtual host block checks if the request is www.example.com and runs your website in that directory.

Failing which, it comes to the second virtual host section. Here anything other than www.example.com is redirected to www.example.com.

The order here matters. If you add the second virtualhost directive first, it will cause a redirect loop.

This solution will redirect any request to your domain, to www.yourdomain.com.

Cheers!

This is similar to many of the other suggestions with a couple enhancements:

• No need to hardcode the domain (works with vhosts that accept multiple domains or between environments)
• Preserves the scheme (http/https) and ignores the effects of previous %{REQUEST_URI} rules.

• The path portion not affected by previous RewriteRules like %{REQUEST_URI} is.

  RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ %{REQUEST_SCHEME}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]
  

Redirection code for both non-www => www and opposite www => non-www. No hardcoding domains and schemes in .htaccess file. So origin domain and http/https version will be preserved.

APACHE 2.4 AND NEWER

NON-WWW => WWW:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_SCHEME}://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

WWW => NON-WWW:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ %{REQUEST_SCHEME}://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

Note: not working on Apache 2.2 where %{REQUEST_SCHEME} is not available. For compatibility with Apache 2.2 use code below or replace %{REQUEST_SCHEME} with fixed http/https.

---

APACHE 2.2 AND NEWER

NON-WWW => WWW:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\. [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

... or shorter version ...

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

WWW => NON-WWW:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ http://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www\.(.*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^ https://%1%{REQUEST_URI} [R=301,L]

... shorter version not possible because %N is available only from last RewriteCond ...