Is there a way to actively serve Apache's default, built-in 404 page for a number of URLs using mod_rewrite? Not a custom error document, but a rule like
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/dirname/pagename RewriteRule -- serve 404 page -----
I know how to build a PHP page that sends the 404 header and have mod_rewrite
redirect all the URLs there but I would prefer a solution that is based on mod_rewrite
only.
I just had the idea of redirecting to a non-existent address:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/dirname/pagename RewriteRule .* /sflkadsölfkasdfölkasdflökasdf
but that would give the user the message "/sflkadsölfkasdfölkasdflökasdf does not exist" on the error page, which looks a bit unprofessional.
mod_rewrite is an Apache module that allows for server-side manipulation of requested URLs. mod_rewrite is an Apache module that allows for server-side manipulation of requested URLs. Incoming URLs are checked against a series of rules. The rules contain a regular expression to detect a particular pattern.
The $1 is basically the captured contents of everything from the start and the end of the string. In other words, $1 = (. *) .
You can use the R
flag on the RewriteRule
to force a redirect with a given status code:
While this is typically used for redirects, any valid status code can be given here. If the status code is outside the redirect range (300-399), then the Substitution string is dropped and rewriting is stopped as if the L flag was used.
So this:
RewriteRule ^/?page\.html$ - [R=404]
would return the default 404 page for /page.html
. Since this is a regexp, remember the escaping \.
and anchoring $
.
-
is ignored (i.e. "the Substitution string is dropped"), but there still needs to be something there to keep the rule well-formed.
The best way to do that is to set the R flag with the status code 404:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/dirname/pagename RewriteRule ^ - [L,R=404]
But this is only available since Apache 2.
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