Laravel 5 – Remove Public from URL

Question

For Laravel 5:

1. Rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php
2. Copy the .htaccess file from /public directory to your Laravel root folder.

That's it!

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PLEASE NOTE when serving a Laravel project with Docker: you won't need to do any of this. Only use this option when your root (or more commonly: public_html) directory of your website is your Laravel project (this is not the case when you're using Docker).

DON'T!

YOU REALLY SHOULD NOT rename server.php in your Laravel root folder to index.php and copy the .htaccess file from the /public directory to your Laravel root folder!!!

This way everyone can access some of your files (.env for example). Try it yourself. You don't want that!

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DO

Instead, you should create an .htaccess file in your root like this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /public/$1 [L,QSA]

This will silently rewrite all your base URIs to the /public folder. Even all Headers, for example the HTTP Authorization Header, and all optional URI parameters will silently be passed on to the /public folder as well.

That's all

I have solved the issue using 2 answers:

1. Renaming the server.php to index.php (no modifications)
2. Copy the .htaccess from public folder to root folder (like rimon.ekjon said below)

3. Changing .htaccess it a bit as follows for statics:

   RewriteEngine On
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(\.css|\.js|\.png|\.jpg|\.gif|robots\.txt)$ [NC]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/public/
   RewriteRule ^(css|js|images)/(.*)$ public/$1/$2 [L,NC]
   

   If there are any other static files needed just add the extension to the previous declared list

In Laravel 5.5 create .htacess file in your root directory and placed the following code:- Reference Link

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    <IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
        Options -MultiViews
    </IfModule>

    RewriteEngine On

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
    RewriteRule ^ ^$1 [N]

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\w+$) [NC]
    RewriteRule ^(.*)$ public/$1 

    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^ server.php

</IfModule>