HTTP redirect one URL to another based on query string

Question

When the URL /page1.php?abc is requested, I want it redirected to /page1.php?xyz instead.

Specifically, this is what I want to tell the client:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Location: /page1.php?xyz

I've tried Apache RedirectMatch directive, but it doesn't seem to support query strings.

Is there another directive which supports HTTP-redirect for URLs with query strings?

Currently I'm accomplishing this using PHP's header function, but this feels like a stopgap hack so I'm looking for an Apache solution.

Answer 1

You can use mod_rewrite for this. If this module is available you use these rules (must be placed inside /.htaccess):

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ="abc"
RewriteRule ^page1\.php$ /page1.php?xyz [R=301,L]

There is a PHP-only solution too:

if ($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"] == "abc") {
    header("Location: /page1.php?xyz", true, 301);
    die;
}