htaccess redirect 301 without a folder

Question

i'm trying to do

• redirect a site from a.example to b.example
• folder a.example/c/ must not redirect
• a.example/test.php must be redirected to a.example/c/test.php

i try this .htaccess :

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule !^c($|/) https://b.example/ [L,R=301]

Redirect 301 /test.php https://www.a.example/c/test.php

but this second 301 redirect doesn't redirect?

Answer 1

The first mod_rewrite RewriteRule directive redirects everything that does not start blog to b.example. This will naturally redirect /test.php as well. Changing the order of these rules will make no difference since Redirect is a mod_alias directive and is processed later¹ regardless of the order of the directives. (¹earlier on "LiteSpeed", opposite to Apache.)

You would need to do something like this instead, using mod_rewrite throughout and reversing the order of the two rules:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^test\.php$ /c/$0 [R=301,L]
RewriteRule !^c($|/) https://b.example/ [L,R=301]

This does assume that the second domain (b.example) points to a different server.

The $0 backreference in the substitution string in the first rule contains the full URL-path that is matched by the RewriteRule pattern, ie. test.php in this example (saves repetition).

Test with a 302 (temporary) redirect first to avoid potential caching issues. You will need to clear your browser cache before testing.