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apache.htaccesshttpwebserver

How can I make Apache rewrite not break an image?

I have a very simple html page sitting at example.com. It consists solely of the following index.html:

<html>
<body style="background-color:black;">
<img src="images/picture1.jpg" alt="example" style="width:40%;">
</html>

The page loads exactly as expected when I go to example.com, but I wanted to make it so any requests to example.com are redirected to this front page (so example.com/catfood takes a user to example.com). I added the following to .htaccess for this:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/
RewriteRule ^ / [R=301]

It redirects correctly, but it breaks the image. I believe this is happening because the request to example.com/images/picture1.jpg is now being redirected to the index page, but I'm not sure what I need to add to my .htaccess to allow the blanket redirection to happen while still loading this image on the front page.

Solution

  • Add another RewriteCond saying that the rule only applies if the request doesn't point to an existing file.

    RewriteCond   %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

    So:

    RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond   %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !=/
RewriteRule ^ / [R=301]

    See https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html